title: Alternative scenarios of starvation-induced adaptation in Pectobacterium atrosepticum.
abstract: Bacteria have high adaptive potential that ensures their survival during various environmental challenges. To adapt, bacteria activate a physiological program of stress response that makes them able to persist under adverse conditions. The present study sought to examine the ability of a particular bacterial species to induce a stress response in alternative scenarios. Cells of the phytopathogenic microorganism Pectobacterium atrosepticum were taken as a model. The cells were exposed to starvation in different physiological states (actively growing exponential phase and stationary phase cells), and the resulting starving cultures were monitored using CFU counting, quantitative PCR and electron microscopy. When exponential phase cells were subjected to starvation, the nucleoids of the cells became condensed and their DNA was detected by qPCR less effectively than that of cells growing in nutrient-rich medium, or stationary phase cells after starvation. Exponential phase cells subjected to starvation showed increased expression of genes encoding DNA binding histone-like proteins, whereas, in cultures inoculated by stationary phase cells, cell-wall-deficient forms that were inefficient at colony forming and that had a non-culturable phenotype were formed. The cell-wall-deficient forms displayed reduced expression of genes encoding synthases of cell wall components.
authors.affiliation: Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420111, Russia. Electronic address: poe60@mail.ru.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Petrova
authors.affiliation: Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420111, Russia; Kazan Federal University, Kazan 420000, Russia. Electronic address: gvy84@mail.ru.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gorshkov
authors.affiliation: Kazan Federal University, Kazan 420000, Russia. Electronic address: juliasergeeva_94@mail.ru.
authors.forename: Iuliia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sergeeva
authors.affiliation: Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420111, Russia. Electronic address: aminochka_88@mail.ru.
authors.forename: Amina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daminova
authors.affiliation: Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420111, Russia. Electronic address: mageeva58@mail.ru.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ageeva
authors.affiliation: Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan 420111, Russia; Kazan Federal University, Kazan 420000, Russia. Electronic address: gogolev.yuri@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gogolev
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D058491:Bacterial Load; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D050296:Microbial Viability; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D044043:Pectobacterium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013312:Stress, Physiological
keywords: Adaptation; Cell-wall-deficient forms; Nucleoid condensation; Stress response; Viable but non-culturable cells