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Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores

Bacterial spores, despite being metabolically dormant, possess the remarkable capacity to detect nutrients and other molecules in their environment through a biochemical sensory apparatus that can trigger spore germination, allowing the return to vegetative growth within minutes of exposure of germi...

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Autores principales: Wang, Shiwei, Faeder, James R., Setlow, Peter, Li, Yong-qing
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society of Microbiology 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4669388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26604257
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01859-15
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author Wang, Shiwei
Faeder, James R.
Setlow, Peter
Li, Yong-qing
author_facet Wang, Shiwei
Faeder, James R.
Setlow, Peter
Li, Yong-qing
author_sort Wang, Shiwei
collection PubMed
description Bacterial spores, despite being metabolically dormant, possess the remarkable capacity to detect nutrients and other molecules in their environment through a biochemical sensory apparatus that can trigger spore germination, allowing the return to vegetative growth within minutes of exposure of germinants. We demonstrate here that bacterial spores of multiple species retain memory of transient exposures to germinant stimuli that can result in altered responses to subsequent exposure. The magnitude and decay of these memory effects depend on the pulse duration as well as on the separation time, incubation temperature, and pH values between the pulses. Spores of Bacillus species germinate in response to nutrients that interact with germinant receptors (GRs) in the spore’s inner membrane, with different nutrient types acting on different receptors. In our experiments, B. subtilis spores display memory when the first and second germinant pulses target different receptors, suggesting that some components of spore memory are downstream of GRs. Furthermore, nonnutrient germinants, which do not require GRs, exhibit memory either alone or in combination with nutrient germinants, and memory of nonnutrient stimulation is found to be more persistent than that induced by GR-dependent stimuli. Spores of B. cereus and Clostridium difficile also exhibit germination memory, suggesting that memory may be a general property of bacterial spores. These observations along with experiments involving strains with mutations in various germination proteins suggest a model in which memory is stored primarily in the metastable states of SpoVA proteins, which comprise a channel for release of dipicolinic acid, a major early event in spore germination.
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spelling pubmed-46693882015-12-10 Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores Wang, Shiwei Faeder, James R. Setlow, Peter Li, Yong-qing mBio Research Article Bacterial spores, despite being metabolically dormant, possess the remarkable capacity to detect nutrients and other molecules in their environment through a biochemical sensory apparatus that can trigger spore germination, allowing the return to vegetative growth within minutes of exposure of germinants. We demonstrate here that bacterial spores of multiple species retain memory of transient exposures to germinant stimuli that can result in altered responses to subsequent exposure. The magnitude and decay of these memory effects depend on the pulse duration as well as on the separation time, incubation temperature, and pH values between the pulses. Spores of Bacillus species germinate in response to nutrients that interact with germinant receptors (GRs) in the spore’s inner membrane, with different nutrient types acting on different receptors. In our experiments, B. subtilis spores display memory when the first and second germinant pulses target different receptors, suggesting that some components of spore memory are downstream of GRs. Furthermore, nonnutrient germinants, which do not require GRs, exhibit memory either alone or in combination with nutrient germinants, and memory of nonnutrient stimulation is found to be more persistent than that induced by GR-dependent stimuli. Spores of B. cereus and Clostridium difficile also exhibit germination memory, suggesting that memory may be a general property of bacterial spores. These observations along with experiments involving strains with mutations in various germination proteins suggest a model in which memory is stored primarily in the metastable states of SpoVA proteins, which comprise a channel for release of dipicolinic acid, a major early event in spore germination. American Society of Microbiology 2015-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4669388/ /pubmed/26604257 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01859-15 Text en Copyright © 2015 Wang et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) , which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Shiwei
Faeder, James R.
Setlow, Peter
Li, Yong-qing
Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title_full Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title_fullStr Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title_full_unstemmed Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title_short Memory of Germinant Stimuli in Bacterial Spores
title_sort memory of germinant stimuli in bacterial spores
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4669388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26604257
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01859-15
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