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The Exosporium Layer of Bacterial Spores: a Connection to the Environment and the Infected Host
- Source :
- Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 79:437-457
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- American Society for Microbiology, 2015.
-
Abstract
- SUMMARY Much of what we know regarding bacterial spore structure and function has been learned from studies of the genetically well-characterized bacterium Bacillus subtilis . Molecular aspects of spore structure, assembly, and function are well defined. However, certain bacteria produce spores with an outer spore layer, the exosporium, which is not present on B. subtilis spores. Our understanding of the composition and biological functions of the exosporium layer is much more limited than that of other aspects of the spore. Because the bacterial spore surface is important for the spore's interactions with the environment, as well as being the site of interaction of the spore with the host's innate immune system in the case of spore-forming bacterial pathogens, the exosporium is worthy of continued investigation. Recent exosporium studies have focused largely on members of the Bacillus cereus family, principally Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus . Our understanding of the composition of the exosporium, the pathway of its assembly, and its role in spore biology is now coming into sharper focus. This review expands on a 2007 review of spore surface layers which provided an excellent conceptual framework of exosporium structure and function (A. O. Henriques and C. P. Moran, Jr., Annu Rev Microbiol 61 :555–588, 2007, http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.micro.61.080706.093224 ). That review began a process of considering outer spore layers as an integrated, multilayered structure rather than simply regarding the outer spore components as independent parts.
- Subjects :
- Clostridium
Spores, Bacterial
biology
fungi
Bacillus cereus
Reviews
Bacillus
Exosporium
Bacillaceae Infections
Bacillus subtilis
biology.organism_classification
Microbiology
Endospore
Spore
Bacillus anthracis
Infectious Diseases
Bacterial Proteins
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Clostridium Infections
Animals
Humans
Bacterial spore
Molecular Biology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10985557 and 10922172
- Volume :
- 79
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1e44cbdebf93c515f27fcd86e0b93e30