DOI: 10.1073/pnas.191384198. Fruiting body formation by <i>Bacillus</i> <i>subtilis</i>

Fruiting body formation by Bacillus subtilis

10.1073/pnas.191384198

Crossref journal-article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)

Abstract

Spore formation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis has long been studied as a model for cellular differentiation, but predominantly as a single cell. When analyzed within the context of highly structured, surface-associated communities (biofilms), spore formation was discovered to have heretofore unsuspected spatial organization. Initially, motile cells differentiated into aligned chains of attached cells that eventually produced aerial structures, or fruiting bodies, that served as preferential sites for sporulation. Fruiting body formation depended on regulatory genes required early in sporulation and on genes evidently needed for exopolysaccharide and surfactin production. The formation of aerial structures was robust in natural isolates but not in laboratory strains, an indication that multicellularity has been lost during domestication of B. subtilis . Other microbial differentiation processes long thought to involve only single cells could display the spatial organization characteristic of multicellular organisms when studied with recent natural isolates.

Bibliography

Branda, S. S., GonzÃ¡lez-Pastor, J. E., Ben-Yehuda, S., Losick, R., & Kolter, R. (2001). Fruiting body formation by Bacillus subtilis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(20), 11621â11626.

Authors 5

Steven S. Branda (first)
José Eduardo González-Pastor (additional)
Sigal Ben-Yehuda (additional)
Richard Losick (additional)
Roberto Kolter (additional)

References 33 Referenced 1,015

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Piggot P. & Losick R. (in press) in Bacillus subtilis and Its Closest Relatives: From Genes to Cells eds. Sonenshein A. L. Hoch J. A. & Losick R. (Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington DC) in press.
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, eds C R Harwood, S M Cutting (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, U.K. Molecular Biological Methods for Bacillus, 1990). / Molecular Biological Methods for Bacillus by Harwood C R (1990)
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Dates

Type	When
Created	23 years, 1 month ago (July 26, 2002, 10:34 a.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 4 months ago (April 13, 2022, 5:31 a.m.)
Indexed	1 week, 4 days ago (Aug. 19, 2025, 5:58 a.m.)
Issued	23 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 25, 2001)
Published	23 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 25, 2001)
Published Online	23 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 25, 2001)
Published Print	23 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 25, 2001)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Branda_2001, title={Fruiting body formation by Bacillus subtilis}, volume={98}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.191384198}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.191384198}, number={20}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Branda, Steven S. and González-Pastor, José Eduardo and Ben-Yehuda, Sigal and Losick, Richard and Kolter, Roberto}, year={2001}, month=sep, pages={11621–11626} }

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  "abstract": "<jats:p>\n            Spore formation by the bacterium\n            <jats:italic>Bacillus subtilis</jats:italic>\n            has long been studied as a model for cellular differentiation, but\n predominantly as a single cell. When analyzed within the context of\n highly structured, surface-associated communities (biofilms), spore\n formation was discovered to have heretofore unsuspected spatial\n organization. Initially, motile cells differentiated into aligned\n chains of attached cells that eventually produced aerial structures, or\n fruiting bodies, that served as preferential sites for sporulation.\n Fruiting body formation depended on regulatory genes required early in\n sporulation and on genes evidently needed for exopolysaccharide and\n surfactin production. The formation of aerial structures was robust in\n natural isolates but not in laboratory strains, an indication that\n multicellularity has been lost during domestication of\n            <jats:italic>B.\n subtilis</jats:italic>\n            . Other microbial differentiation processes long\n thought to involve only single cells could display the spatial\n organization characteristic of multicellular organisms when studied\n with recent natural isolates.\n          </jats:p>",
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