Differentiation of vegetative cells into spores: a kinetic model applied to Bacillus subtilis.

Differentiation of vegetative cells into spores: a kinetic model applied to Bacillus subtilis. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Mar 22;: Authors: Gauvry E, Mathot AG, Couvert O, Leguérinel I, Jules M, Coroller L Abstract Spore-forming bacteria are natural contaminants of food raw materials and sporulation can occur in many environments from farm to fork. In order to characterize and to predict spore formation over time, we developed a model that describes both the kinetics of growth and the differentiation of vegetative cells into spores. The model is based on a classical growth model and enables to describe the kinetic of sporulation with the addition of three parameters specific of the sporulation. Two parameters are related to the probability of each vegetative cell to commit to sporulation and to form a spore, and the last one is related to the time needed to form a spore once the cell is committed to sporulation. The goodness of fit of this growth-sporulation model was assessed using growth-sporulation kinetics at various temperature in laboratory medium or in whey for Bacillus subtilis, B. cereus and B. licheniformis The model accurately describes the kinetics in these different conditions with a mean error closed to 0.78 log10 (CFU/mL) for the growth and 1.08 log10 (CFU/mL) for the sporulation. The biological meaning of the parameters was validated with a derivative strain of Bacillus subtilis 168 which produces the green fluores...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research