Most basidiomycete fungi actively eject their spores. The process begins with the condensation of a water droplet at the base of the spore. The fusion of the droplet onto the spore creates a momentum that propels the spore forward. The use of surface tension for spore ejection offers a new paradigm to perform work at small length scales. However, this mechanism of force generation remains poorl...

BACKGROUND The Bacillus subtilis spore has long been used as a surface display system with potential applications in a variety of fields ranging from mucosal vaccine delivery, bioremediation and biocatalyst development. More recently, a non-recombinant approach of spore display has been proposed and heterologous proteins adsorbed on the spore surface. We used the well-characterized β-galactosid...

Germination of dormant Bacillus subtilis spores with specific nutrient germinants is dependent on a number of inner membrane (IM) proteins, including (i) the GerA, GerB, and GerK germinant receptors (GRs) that respond to nutrient germinants; (ii) the GerD protein, essential for optimal GR function; and (iii) SpoVA proteins, essential for the release of the spore-specific molecule dipicolinic ac...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) are the leading cause of world-wide nosocomial acquired diarrhea. The current main clinical challenge in CDI is the elevated rate of infection recurrence that may reach up to 30% of the patients, which has been associated to the formation of dormant spores during the infection. We sought to characterize the effects of oral administration of specific anti-sp...

background and objectives: microbial spoilage of juices and industries related with alicyclobacillus are considerable international issues. this spore-forming bacterium causes changes in juices odor and taste. the isolation and identification of alicyclobacillus contamination in juice producing and packaging industries has an essential role in the prevention and control of this type of spoilage...

to identify arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (amf) associated with crataegus pontica c. koch, 54 soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of this plant in ilam province, western iran. isolation of mycorrhizal spores was conducted by wet sieving followed by centrifuge. amf were identified based on morphological characteristics of spores. in this study, 13 species of amf belonging to five gene...

Bacillus subtilis spores can germinate with a 1:1 chelate of Ca and dipicolinic acid (DPA), a compound present at high levels in the spore core. Using a genetic screen to identify genes encoding proteins that are specifically involved in spore germination by Ca -DPA, three mutations were identified. One was in the gene encoding the cortex lytic enzyme, CwlJ, that was previously shown to be esse...