{"doi":"10.1111/mmi.14562","title":"A protein phosphorylation module patterns the <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> spore outer coat","abstract":"Abstract Assembly of the Bacillus subtilis spore coat involves over 80 proteins which self‐organize into a basal layer, a lamellar inner coat, a striated electrodense outer coat and a more external crust. CotB is an abundant component of the outer coat. The C‐terminal moiety of CotB, SKR B , formed by serine‐rich repeats, is polyphosphorylated by the Ser/Thr kinase CotH. We show that another coat protein, CotG, with a central serine‐repeat region, SKR G , interacts with the C‐terminal moiety of CotB and promotes its phosphorylation by CotH in vivo and in a heterologous system. CotG itself is phosphorylated by CotH but phosphorylation is enhanced in the absence of CotB. Spores of a strain producing an inactive form of CotH, like those formed by a cotG deletion mutant, lack the pattern of electrondense outer coat striations, but retain the crust. In contrast, deletion of the SKR B region, has no major impact on outer coat structure. Thus, phosphorylation of CotG by CotH is a key factor establishing the structure of the outer coat. The presence of the cotB / cotH / cotG cluster in several species closely related to B. subtilis hints at the importance of this protein phosphorylation module in the morphogenesis of the spore surface layers.","journal":"Molecular Microbiology","year":2020,"id":98546,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":31,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9611,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":487446,"name":"Jarnaja Plannic","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486253,"name":"Rachele Isticato","orcid":"0000-0001-9141-4038","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486254,"name":"Assunta Pelosi","orcid":"0000-0002-6927-4494","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486255,"name":"Rita Zilhão","orcid":"0000-0002-1885-5432","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486256,"name":"Mónica Serrano","orcid":"0000-0003-3335-3219","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486257,"name":"Loredana Baccigalupi","orcid":"0000-0003-3070-161X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486258,"name":"Ezio Ricca","orcid":"0000-0002-7355-0332","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":487447,"name":"Alexander Elsholz","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315045,"name":"Richard Losick","orcid":"0000-0002-5130-6582","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486259,"name":"Adriano O. Henriques","orcid":"0000-0003-4292-4802","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486252,"name":"Carolina Freitas","orcid":"0000-0002-3226-2908","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":74,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:36:58.511143Z","pmid":"32592201","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}