The spoOA locus contains two types of closely linked mutations that block sporulation at stage 0: spoOA mutations (the most pleiotropic of the stage 0 markers) and spoOC mutations. It was previously thought that spoOA mutations were dominant in merodiploids of Bacillus subtilis, whereas spoOC mutations were recessive. We have shown that spoOA mutations were recessive when spoOA-IspoOA+ merodiploids were made in the genetic backgrounds of strains that were resistant to antibiotic produced by the wild-type strain. Reinvestigation of cultures of spoOA-IspoOA+ merodiploids constructed in the antibiotic-sensitive spoOA strain showed that they contained the spoOA allele at a low frequency, and they produced very few haploid Sposegregants. These facts indicated that the cultures contained mostly homogenotic (spo0A+/spo0A+) cells. The reason for the poor survival of the spoOA-IspoOA+ merodiploids in the genetic background
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