ArticleJournal of bacteriology2009
The spore-specific alanine racemase of Bacillus anthracis and its role in suppressing germination during spore development.
Article in Journal of bacteriology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- The roles and synthesis of inorganic polyphosphate inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Catabolism of germinant amino acids is required to prevent premature spore germination inmBio · 2024Article
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- Promising applications of D-amino acids in periprosthetic joint infection.Bone research · 2023Review
- Roles and Organization of BxpB (ExsFA) and ExsFB in the Exosporium Outer Basal Layer of Bacillus anthracis.Journal of bacteriology · 2022Article
- Clostridioides difficile bile salt hydrolase activity has substrate specificity and affects biofilm formation.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2022Article
- Triosephosphate Isomerase and Its Product Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Are Involved in the Regulatory Mechanism That Suppresses Exit from the Quiescent State in Yeast Cells.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Profiling of d-alanine production by the microbial isolates of rat gut microbiota.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Spore-Associated Proteins Involved in c-di-GMP Synthesis and Degradation of Bacillus anthracis.Journal of bacteriology · 2021Article
- Interactions ofMicroorganisms · 2021Article
- Learning from Nature: Bacterial Spores as a Target for Current Technologies in Medicine (Review).Sovremennye tekhnologii v meditsine · 2021Review
- Cell wall peptidoglycan in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: An Achilles' heel for the TB-causing pathogen.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2019Review
- A disclosure gel for visual detection of live Bacillus anthracis spores.Journal of applied microbiology · 2019Article
- Article
- Vibrio fischeri DarR Directs Responses to d-Aspartate and Represents a Group of Similar LysR-Type Transcriptional Regulators.Journal of bacteriology · 2018Article
- Clostridium sordellii outer spore proteins maintain spore structural integrity and promote bacterial clearance from the gastrointestinal tract.PLoS pathogens · 2018Article
- Stoichiometry, Absolute Abundance, and Localization of Proteins in the Bacillus cereus Spore Coat Insoluble Fraction Determined Using a QconCAT Approach.Journal of proteome research · 2018Article
- The Bacillus subtilis germinant receptor GerA triggers premature germination in response to morphological defects during sporulation.Molecular microbiology · 2017Article
- AThe Journal of biological chemistry · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Spores of Bacillus anthracis are enclosed by an exosporium composed of a basal layer and an external hair-like nap. The nap is apparently formed by a single glycoprotein, while the basal layer contains many different structural proteins and several enzymes. One of the enzymes is Alr, an alanine racemase capable of converting the spore germinant l-alanine to the germination inhibitor d-alanine. Unlike other characterized exosporium proteins, Alr is nonuniformly distributed in the exosporium and might have a second spore location. In this study, we demonstrated that expression of the alr gene, which encodes Alr, is restricted to sporulating cells and that the bulk of alr transcription and Alr synthesis occurs during the late stages of sporulation. We also mapped two alr promoters that are differentially active during sporulation and might be involved in the atypical localization of Alr. Finally, we constructed a Deltaalr mutant of B. anthracis that lacks Alr and examined the properties of the spores produced by this strain. Mature Deltaalr spores germinate more efficiently in the presence of l-alanine, presumably because of their inability to convert exogenous l-alanine to d-alanine, but they respond normally to other germinants. Surprisingly, the production of mature spores by the Deltaalr mutant is defective because approximately one-half of the nascent spores germinate and lose their resistance properties before they are released from the mother cell. This phenotype suggests that an important function of Alr is to produce D-alanine during the late stages of sporulation to suppress premature germination of the developing spore.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.