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Bacterial spores are able to resist heat, desiccation, irradiation, organic solvents, and antibiotics and can remain metabolically inactive for decades.
Nevertheless, an encounter with nutrients triggers exit from dormancy and resumption of growth within minutes.
Broadly conserved receptors embedded in the spore membrane detect nutrients, but how spores transduce these signals remains unclear.
Germinant receptors act as nutrient-gated ion channels such that ion release initiates exit from dormancy.
Representative cladogram of the main human intestinal microbiota families and their associated sporulation ability. Internal clade colours represent different taxonomic families. Family names are presented, with the phylum that the family belongs to indicated by a letter in brackets: P, Proteobacteria; B, Bacteroidetes; A, Actinobacteria and F, Firmicutes. The most abundant families that have the greatest known metabolic outputs in the intestinal microbiota are the Bacteroidaceae, Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae families. The circle that surrounds the cladogram indicates known sporulation ability. Not all bacterial species in a taxon that contains spore-forming species have been demonstrated to form spores.
Approximately half of the bacterial genera in healthy gut microbiota can form spores, facilitating transmission between individuals.
see also:
Biological effects / Functions & Probiotics (living agents)
Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile
Composition & Gut microbiota