Bacterial sporulation

Bacterial sporulation is a developmental process in which certain bacteria form dormant, resistant endospores. It enables survival through conditions that vegetative cells cannot withstand.

Asymmetric cell division: Cell division that produces daughter cells with unequal sizes or developmental fates. Sporulation begins by dividing the cell into a small forespore and a larger mother cell.
Bacterial endospore: A dormant, highly resistant structure formed inside certain bacterial cells. The endospore is the product whose formation defines bacterial sporulation.
Autoclave: A device that sterilizes materials with pressurized saturated steam. Autoclaves are designed to kill resistant bacterial endospores using moist heat.
Bacterial persistence: A reversible state in which a subpopulation of bacteria survives stress without genetic resistance. Persister cells survive as vegetative cells rather than differentiating into endospores.
Endospore resistance: The ability of bacterial endospores to withstand stresses that readily kill vegetative cells. Resistance is the defining survival advantage produced by sporulation.
Engulfment: A cellular process in which one membrane-bounded compartment encloses another. The mother cell membrane surrounds the forespore, creating its second membrane.
Bacillus subtilis: A Gram-positive soil bacterium widely used as a model organism in molecular biology. Its sporulation pathway provides the best-studied model of the process.
Biological indicator: A test system using highly resistant microorganisms to assess a sterilization process. Spore-based indicators test whether sterilization conditions reliably destroy endospores.
Bacterial cyst: A dormant, stress-resistant bacterial form produced by some bacteria through cellular differentiation. Cysts resemble endospores in survival function but arise through a different developmental process.
Endospore germination: The process by which a dormant bacterial endospore returns to vegetative growth. Germination reverses dormancy when conditions again support bacterial growth.

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