Team:Newcastle/SporulationTuning/CellCycle

=Cell Cycle= In addition to factoring extracellular conditions such as cell density and nutrient availability into the decision to sporulate, the intracellular environment is monitored as well. Damage to DNA and blocking of either the initiation or progression of DNA replication prevent the initiation of sporulation. These conditions lead to the expression of Sda (suppressor of dnaA) because of the presence of binding sites in the sda promoter region for the repressors DnaA and LexA, which no longer repress when DNA replication is blocked or DNA is damaged, respectively. Sda impairs KinA autophosphorylation, blocking the phosphorelay. As a result, a developmental checkpoint is established that only allows cells with undamaged, replicating chromosomes to proceed into development.[1]