OCCURRENCE OF THE REGULATORY NUCLEOTIDES PPGPP AND PPPGPP FOLLOWING INDUCTION OF THE STRINGENT RESPONSE IN STAPHYLOCOCCI

The stringent response in Escherichia coli and many other organisms is regulated by the nucleotides ppGpp and pppGpp. We show here for the f irst time that at least six staphylococcal species also synthesize ppG pp and pppGpp upon induction of the stringent response by mupirocin. S pots corresponding to ppGpp and pppGpp on thin-layer chromatograms sug gest that pppGpp is the principal regulatory nucleotide synthesized by staphylococci in response to mupirocin, rather than ppGpp as in E. co li.