Dormancy in non-sporulating bacteria

Kaprelyants, Arseny S.; Gottschal, Jan C.; Kell, Douglas B.

doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1993.tb05871.x

Cited by 287 publications

(165 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…2B). Whereas unwashed cells proliferate normally in liquid LMM (25,28) the proliferation of washed cells in this medium appeared to depend absolutely on added Rpf over the 160 h duration of the experiment (the prolonged lag phase in this experiment results from the use of a small inoculum of intensively washed cells and a minimal medium). In view of the low concentrations necessary for activity, a trivial nutritional role for (proteolytic degradation products of) Rpf may be discounted.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…M. luteus NCIMB 13267 (previously described as ''Fleming strain 2665'') was grown aerobically at 30°C in conical flasks in lactate minimal medium (LMM) containing L-lactate as described (25,28). When the culture had reached stationary phase, agitation was continued at 30°C for up to 2 months.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After growth to stationary phase and starvation in spent growth medium, cells of the nonsporulating, Gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus luteus can enter a dormant state in which they can persist for at least 7 months. Whereas exponentially growing cultures have a viability of Ϸ100%, as estimated by comparing colony forming units (cfu) on agar plates with the total cell count determined microscopically, such dormant cultures can exhibit a viability of less than 10 Ϫ4 (25). The viable count of this type of culture as measured by the Most Probable Number (MPN) method also corresponds to the number of cfu.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A bacterial cytokine

Mukamolova

Kaprelyants

Young

et al. 1998

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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405

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Viable cells of Micrococcus luteus secrete a factor, which promotes the resuscitation and growth of dormant, nongrowing cells of the same organism. The resuscitationpromoting factor (Rpf) is a protein, which has been purified to homogeneity. In picomolar concentrations, it increases the viable cell count of dormant M. luteus cultures at least 100-fold and can also stimulate the growth of viable cells. Rpf also stimulates the growth of several other high G؉C Gram-positive organisms, including Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium bovis (BCG), Mycobacterium kansasii, Mycobacterium smegmatis, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Similar genes are widely distributed among high G؉C Gram-positive bacteria; genome sequencing has uncovered examples in Mycobacterium leprae and Mb. tuberculosis and others have been detected by hybridization in Mb. smegmatis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, and Streptomyces spp. The mycobacterial gene products may provide different targets for the detection and control of these important pathogens. This report is thus a description of a proteinaceous autocrine or paracrine bacterial growth factor or cytokine.The essential role of cytokines in controlling the activation, growth, and proliferation of eukaryotic cells is now widely recognized (1). These proteinaceous cell-signaling molecules include many growth factors that are widely distributed among vertebrates, and probably also invertebrates (2). Similar growth factors have also recently been found in unicellular organisms such as ciliates (3-6). In prokaryotic organisms, intercellular signaling usually involves small metabolites (e.g., N-acyl homoserine lactones) or peptides (7-16). Although specific interactions have been documented between vertebrate cytokines and prokaryotes (17-20), there are no known examples of autocrine or paracrine growth factors produced by prokaryotic microorganisms.The number of observable microbial cells in a natural sample often exceeds the number that can be cultured therefrom by orders of magnitude (21-23). It is not known in general whether such nonculturable (and often noncultured) cells are dead, are killed by our media, or are in a dormant state from which we could, in principle, resuscitate them with appropriate growth factors (24). After growth to stationary phase and starvation in spent growth medium, cells of the nonsporulating, Gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus luteus can enter a dormant state in which they can persist for at least 7 months. Whereas exponentially growing cultures have a viability of Ϸ100%, as estimated by comparing colony forming units (cfu) on agar plates with the total cell count determined microscopically, such dormant cultures can exhibit a viability of less than 10 Ϫ4 (25). The viable count of this type of culture as measured by the Most Probable Number (MPN) method also corresponds to the number of cfu. However, in the presence of sterile (filtered) culture supernatant from the late logarithmic phase of batch growth, resuscitation occurs and the viable count by MPN increases ...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A bacterial cytokine

Mukamolova

Kaprelyants

Young

et al. 1998

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

405

376

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“…) The generic mechanism of insurance does not rely on regular, cyclic changes between environments as above, therefore it relies entirely on the group benefit of diversification and the fitness benefit for the group must be strong enough to counteract the fitness disadvantage of insurers within each group. The formation of resting stages such as persisters (Lewis, 2000;Gilbert et al, 2002;Sufya et al, 2003), dormant cells or the more differentiated spores (Kaprelyants et al, 1993) as a subpopulation offers the most general protection against all possible events, while the fitness disadvantage of a non-growing dormant cell (while the conditions are favourable for growth) is maximal. If the rate of formation of resting stages were too high, the individual-level fitness of insurer strategists that spin off persisters or other resting stages would decrease more than could be compensated for by the increased group-level fitness.…”

Section: G Rou P B E N E Fits Of Popu Lation H Ete Rog E N E Ity: Th mentioning

confidence: 98%

Conflicts of interest in biofilms

Kreft¹

2004

Biofilms

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High cell density and close proximity of diverse species of microorganisms are typical of life in natural biofilms. These conditions give ample opportunity for both competitive and cooperative interactions between individuals of the same and different species. Cooperative behaviour benefits the group of neighbouring microbes but comes at a fitness cost for the cooperating individuals. This creates a conflict of interest between the fitness of the individual and the fitness of the group. Individuals that defect from cooperation and therefore do not pay the cost but nevertheless benefit from the cooperative behaviour of others are called cheaters. Cooperative behaviour in the presence of cheaters constitutes altruism towards the cheaters. The aim of this review is two-fold: first, to introduce key concepts from kin selection and group selection theory that allow us to understand how cooperative behaviour can evolve in the face of cheaters; secondly, to draw attention to the conflicts of interest prevalent in biofilms yet largely ignored in the biofilm literature. Examples discussed comprise growth restraint in stationary phase as an instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma, growth restraint to allow channel formation, restraint in resource consumption or economical use of resources as altruistic behaviour, population heterogeneity as insurance against environmental changes, cooperative investment in diffusible exoenzymes, cooperation of pathogens and virulence, diffusion sensing versus quorum sensing and the inflation of signals, antibiotic resistance as collective action, and programmed cell death.

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“…These task particularly concerns pathogenic gram-negative bacteria that survive in the host body in a dormant state, but unpredictably become active and cause disease in an uncontrolled way (Rahman et al, 1996). As examples of vegetative dormancy in non-spore-forming bacteria, a number of researchers consider viable but non-culturable cells and ultramicrobacteria (Kaprelyants et al, 1993). It was claimed by Bisset (1952) that nearly all bacteria have a resting stage, termed ÔmicrocystsÕ, intended for survival.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%