The Bacillus subtilis spore coat provides "eat resistance" during phagocytic predation by the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila.

ABSTRACT: Bacillus spores are highly resistant to many environmental stresses, owing in part to the presence of multiple "extracellular" layers. Although the role of some of these extracellular layers in resistance to particular stresses is known, the function of one of the outermost layers, the spore coat, is not completely understood. This study sought to determine whether the spore coat plays a role in resistance to predation by the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena, which uses phagocytosis to ingest and degrade other microorganisms. Wild-type dormant spores of Bacillus subtilis were efficiently ingested by the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila but were neither digested nor killed. However, spores with various coat defects were killed and digested, leaving only an outer shell termed a rind, and supp

SUBMITTER: Klobutcher LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1324984 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature