There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
The bacterial signaling molecules ppGpp and pppGpp regulate transcription initiation
in response to starvation by altering RNA polymerase activity. In this issue, Wang
et al. (2007) show that (p)ppGpp also inhibits DNA replication elongation by interfering
with DNA primase activity. Halting replication may help cells to maintain genomic
integrity during periods of transient nutrient limitation.