title: Dormancy in Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 as a survival strategy to escape from deleterious effects of carbon starvation and temperature.
abstract: Dormancy is characterized by low metabolism and absence of protein synthesis and cellular division enabling bacterial cells to survive under stress. The aim was to determine if carbon starvation and low temperature are factors that modify the proportion of dormant/active cells in Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1. By flow cytometry, RedoxSensor Green (RSG) was used to quantify metabolic activity and Propidium Iodide (PI) to evaluate membrane integrity in order to determine the percentage of dormant cells. Cell size and morphology were determined using scanning electronic microscopy. Under carbon starvation at 30°C, Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 increased its proportion of dormant cells from 0.1% to 20%, decreased the count of culturable cells and average cell volume decreased 7.1 times. At 4°C, however, the proportion of dormant cells increased only to 6%, without a change in the count of culturable cells and an average cellular volume decrease of 4.1 times and 3% of the dormant cells were able to be awakened. Results indicate a greater proportion of dormant Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 cells at 30ºC and it suggests that carbon starvation is more deleterious condition at 30ºC than 4ºC. For this reason Deinococcus sp. UDEC-P1 cells are more likely to enter into dormancy at higher temperature as a strategy to survive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors.forename: Matías
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors.forename: Karina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D034301:Deinococcus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017753:Ecosystem; D050296:Microbial Viability; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: Deinococcus; dormancy; flow cytometry; metabolism; starvation