title: Spore Germination.
abstract: Despite being resistant to a variety of environmental insults, the bacterial endospore can sense the presence of small molecules and respond by germinating, losing the specialized structures of the dormant spore, and resuming active metabolism, before outgrowing into vegetative cells. Our current level of understanding of the spore germination process in bacilli and clostridia is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the germinant receptors characterized in Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus anthracis. The recent evidence for a local clustering of receptors in a "germinosome" would begin to explain how signals from different receptors could be integrated. The SpoVA proteins, involved in the uptake of Ca2+-dipicolinic acid into the forespore during sporulation, are also responsible for its release during germination. Lytic enzymes SleB and CwlJ, found in bacilli and some clostridia, hydrolyze the spore cortex: other clostridia use SleC for this purpose. With genome sequencing has come the appreciation that there is considerable diversity in the setting for the germination machinery between bacilli and clostridia.
authors.affiliation: Krebs Institute, Department of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moir
authors.affiliation: Krebs Institute, Department of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D001407:Bacillus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins