This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ghosh, S.
Right arrow Articles by Setlow, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ghosh, S.
Right arrow Articles by Setlow, P.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6741-6748, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00896-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization of Spores of Bacillus subtilis That Lack Most Coat Layers{triangledown}

Sonali Ghosh,1 Barbara Setlow,1 Paul G. Wahome,1,{dagger} Ann E. Cowan,1,2 Marco Plomp,3 Alexander J. Malkin,3 and Peter Setlow1*

Department of Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology,1 Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06030-3305,2 Chemistry, Materials, Earth and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 945513

Received 30 June 2008/ Accepted 18 August 2008

Spores of Bacillus subtilis have a thick outer layer of relatively insoluble protein called the coat, which protects spores against a number of treatments and may also play roles in spore germination. However, elucidation of precise roles of the coat in spore properties has been hampered by the inability to prepare spores lacking all or most coat material. In this work, we show that spores of a strain with mutations in both the cotE and gerE genes, which encode proteins involved in coat assembly and expression of genes encoding coat proteins, respectively, lack most extractable coat protein as seen by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, as well as the great majority of the coat as seen by atomic force microscopy. However, the cotE gerE spores did retain a thin layer of insoluble coat material that was most easily seen by microscopy following digestion of these spores with lysozyme. These severely coat-deficient spores germinated relatively normally with nutrients and even better with dodecylamine but not with a 1:1 chelate of Ca2+ and dipicolinic acid. These spores were also quite resistant to wet heat, to mechanical disruption, and to treatment with detergents at an elevated temperature and pH but were exquisitely sensitive to killing by sodium hypochlorite. These results provide new insight into the role of the coat layer in spore properties.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030-3305. Phone: (860) 679-2607. Fax: (860) 679-3408. E-mail: setlow{at}nso2.uchc.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 22 August 2008.

{dagger} Present address: Wadsworth Center, 120 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY 12208.

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6741-6748, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00896-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»