Life cycle and spore resistance of spore-forming Bacillus atrophaeus

Sandra R B R Sella; Luciana P S Vandenberghe; Carlos Ricardo Soccol

doi:10.1016/j.micres.2014.05.001

Life cycle and spore resistance of spore-forming Bacillus atrophaeus

Microbiol Res. 2014 Dec;169(12):931-9. doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2014.05.001. Epub 2014 May 10.

Authors

Sandra R B R Sella¹, Luciana P S Vandenberghe², Carlos Ricardo Soccol²

Affiliations

¹ Production and Research Centre of Immunobiological Products, Secretaria de Saúde do Estado do Paraná, Piraquara, PR, Brazil; Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology Department, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. Electronic address: sella.sandra@gmail.com.
² Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology Department, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.

PMID: 24880805
DOI: 10.1016/j.micres.2014.05.001

Abstract

Bacillus endospores have a wide variety of important medical and industrial applications. This is an overview of the fundamental aspects of the life cycle, spore structure and factors that influence the spore resistance of spore-forming Bacillus. Bacillus atrophaeus was used as reference microorganism for this review because their spores are widely used to study spore resistance and morphology. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the cell cycle and spore survival is important for developing strategies for spore killing; producing highly resistant spores for biodefense, food and pharmaceutical applications; and developing new bioactive molecules and methods for spore surface display.

Keywords: Bacillus; Germination; Spores resistance; Sporulation.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Bacillus subtilis / physiology*
Spores, Bacterial / chemistry
Spores, Bacterial / physiology*
Spores, Bacterial / ultrastructure*