Gene expression values of represented genes during the different stages of sporulation and germination*
All genes part of the active regulons during vegetative growth were clustered based on the regulation of their expression. Their cognate gene expression values are represented in a heatmap showing upregulation as positive values and downregulation as negative values. Sporulation- and germination-specific expression data was retrieved from supplementary data Table S2 of Nicolas et al. 2012 183 . Subsequently, the replicates were averaged and normalized to t=0 (initiation of sporulation) of the sporulation data column. Excel was used to visualize the expression values using automated two colour conditional formatting (red for downregulated and blue for upregulated). In the heatmap, t=0 to t=8 indicate the number of hours after initiation of sporulation as described in supplementary data Table S1 by Nicolas et al. 2012 183. The final three columns contain expression data at 135 minutes, 150 minutes and 180 minutes after addition of spore germination trigger alanine to purified spores of B. subtilis 183.
Blue indicating upregulation compared to t = 0
Red indicating downregulation compared to t = 0