Water and Small-Molecule Permeation of Dormant Bacillus subtilis Spores.

ABSTRACT:

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We use a suspended microchannel resonator to characterize the water and small-molecule permeability of Bacillus subtilis spores based on spores' buoyant mass in different solutions. Consistent with previous results, we found that the spore coat is not a significant barrier to small molecules, and the extent to which small molecules may enter the spore is size dependent. We have developed a method to directly observe the exchange kinetics of intraspore water with deuterium oxide, and we applied this method to wild-type spores and a panel of congenic mutants with deficiencies in the assembly or structure of the coat. Compared to wild-type spores, which exchange in approximately 1 s, several coat mutant spores were found to have relatively high water permeability with excha

SUBMITTER: Knudsen SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4686191 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature