Glutamine, like glucose, repressed sporulation and the synthesis of mycobacillin and dipicolinic acid by Bacillus subtilis, and these syntheses were derepressed by dibutyryl cyclic GMP but not by dibutyryl cyclic AMP. Neither of these dibutyryl cyclic nucleotides affected sporulation or a number of spore‐associated parameters in the strain under normal physiological conditions. Mutants insensitive to glutamine repression were indifferent to the addition of either of the dibutyryl cyclic nucleotides both in the presence and in the absence of glutamine. Sporulation resulted from the remission of repression obtained under the catabolically active state. Copyright © 1991, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved