Contributions of crust proteins to spore surface properties in Bacillus subtilis

• DOI: 10.1111/mmi.14194
• Publication Date: 2018-12-24T17:50:51Z
• Authors: Bentley Shuster; Mark Khemmani; Kimihiro Abe; Xiaoyu Huang; Yusei Nakaya; Nina Maryn; Sally Buttar; Adriana N. Gonzalez; Adam Driks; Tsutomu Sato; Patrick Eichenberger
• Keywords: Spores; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Bacterial Proteins; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Surface Properties; Membrane Proteins; Bacterial Adhesion; Bacillus subtilis

Summary Surface properties, such as adhesion and hydrophobicity, constrain dispersal of bacterial spores in the environment. In Bacillus subtilis , these properties are influenced by outermost layer spore, crust . Previous work has shown that two clusters, cotVWXYZ cgeAB encode protein components crust. Here, we characterize respective roles genes surface using Bacterial Adherence to Hydrocarbons assays, negative staining polysaccharides India ink Transmission Electron Microscopy. We showed inactivation caused increases spore relative disrupted polysaccharide layer, impaired structure attachment rest coat. also found cotO previously identified for its role outer coat formation, is necessary proper encasement parallel, conducted fluorescence microscopy experiments determine full network genetic dependencies subcellular localization proteins. determined CotZ required most proteins, while CgeA at bottom interaction hierarchy.