Affiliation:
1. Department of Veterinary Science and Microbiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Spores of
Bacillus subtilis
possess a thick protein coat that consists of an electron-dense outer coat layer and a lamellalike inner coat layer. The spore coat has been shown to confer resistance to lysozyme and other sporicidal substances. In this study, spore coat-defective mutants of
B. subtilis
(containing the
gerE36
and/or
cotE::cat
mutation) were used to study the relative contributions of spore coat layers to spore resistance to hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) and various artificial and solar UV treatments. Spores of strains carrying mutations in
gerE
and/or
cotE
were very sensitive to lysozyme and to 5% H
2
O
2
, as were chemically decoated spores of the wild-type parental strain. Spores of all coat-defective strains were as resistant to 254-nm UV-C radiation as wild-type spores were. Spores possessing the
gerE36
mutation were significantly more sensitive to artificial UV-B and solar UV radiation than wild-type spores were. In contrast, spores of strains possessing the
cotE::cat
mutation were significantly more resistant to all of the UV treatments used than wild-type spores were. Spores of strains carrying both the
gerE36
and
cotE::cat
mutations behaved like
gerE36
mutant spores. Our results indicate that the spore coat, particularly the inner coat layer, plays a role in spore resistance to environmentally relevant UV wavelengths.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
Cited by
241 articles.
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