JB Accepted Manuscript Posted Online 18 July 2016 J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.00405-16 Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. 1 Germinants and their receptors in clostridia 2 Disha Bhattacharjee*, Kathleen N. McAllister* and Joseph A. Sorg1 3 4 Downloaded from 5 Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 6 7 Running Title: Germination in Clostridia http://jb.asm.org/ 8 9 *These authors contributed equally to this work 10 1Corresponding Author on September 12, 2018 by guest 11 ph: 979-845-6299 12 email:
[email protected] 13 14 Abstract 15 Many anaerobic, spore-forming clostridial species are pathogenic and some are industrially 16 useful. Though many are strict anaerobes, the bacteria persist in aerobic and growth-limiting 17 conditions as multilayered, metabolically dormant spores. For many pathogens, the spore-form is Downloaded from 18 what most commonly transmits the organism between hosts. After the spores are introduced into 19 the host, certain proteins (germinant receptors) recognize specific signals (germinants), inducing 20 spores to germinate and subsequently outgrow into metabolically active cells. Upon germination 21 of the spore into the metabolically-active vegetative form, the resulting bacteria can colonize the 22 host and cause disease due to the secretion of toxins from the cell. Spores are resistant to many http://jb.asm.org/ 23 environmental stressors, which make them challenging to remove from clinical environments. 24 Identifying the conditions and the mechanisms of germination in toxin-producing species could 25 help develop affordable remedies for some infections by inhibiting germination of the spore on September 12, 2018 by guest 26 form.