Is it possible that prototypical bacterial endospores (e.g., those of Bacillus subtilis) carry out some metabolic activities, albeit at extremely slow rates?
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I believe they likely do (some of the time). I seem to recall a poster I just saw at the Prokaryotic Development meeting from Sigal Ben-Yeduda's lab where someone did microarrays on spores of different ages. They found different mRNAs present at different times. Which suggests that some mRNAs are being degraded (possibly enzymatically) and/or some mRNAs are being synthesized (definitely enzymatically). I think these experiments were examining spores only a few days old... but it suggests its possible!
Elio's comment:
Thanks for pointing us in this interesting direction. It suggests - perhaps - that spores may "mature" after being released into the world. Maybe they carry out a limited amount of metabolic activity for a short while. A twilight dream before going to sleep?
Posted by: Melanie Berkmen | August 06, 2009 at 08:18 AM