ArticleNature communications2018
Phenotypic memory in Bacillus subtilis links dormancy entry and exit by a spore quantity-quality tradeoff.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Dry versus wet dormancy: suspended lives ofmSystems · 2026Review
- Bacterial extracellular vesicles as recyclable nutrient reservoirs.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Discreteness, Computation, and Rules of Life for Self-Organization Dynamics Beyond Equilibrium.Newton ((New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Inoculation of wheat seeds with spore-forming bacteria as a novel approach to enhance growth under climate change-induced stress conditions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Toxicity study of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein expressed on Bacillus subtilis spores.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Modulation of the Sporulation Dynamics in the Plant-Probiotic Bacillus velezensis 83 via Carbon and Quorum-Sensing Metabolites.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2025Article
- Real-time nanoscale investigation of spore coat assembly in Bacillus subtilis.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Nutrient storage links past thermal exposure to current performance in phytoplankton.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Phosphorelay changes and plasticity underlie the life history evolution ofMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
- Bacillus subtilis ensures high spore quality in competition with Salmonella Typhimurium via the SigB-dependent pathway.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- The megaplasmid pCER270 ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Microbial life in slow and stopped lanes.Trends in microbiology · 2024Review
- Phenotypic memory in quorum sensing.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Catabolism of germinant amino acids is required to prevent premature spore germination inmBio · 2024Article
- The motility-matrix production switch inJournal of bacteriology · 2024Article
- Clostridioides difficile Sporulation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- The Bacterial Spore as a Mucosal Vaccine Delivery System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- TonB-Dependent Receptor Protein Displayed on Spores ofVaccines · 2023Article
- Prophylactic and therapeutic insights into trained immunity: A renewed concept of innate immune memory.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Some bacteria, such as Bacillus subtilis, withstand starvation by forming dormant spores that revive when nutrients become available. Although sporulation and spore revival jointly determine survival in fluctuating environments, the relationship between them has been unclear. Here we show that these two processes are linked by a phenotypic "memory" that arises from a carry-over of molecules from the vegetative cell into the spore. By imaging life histories of individual B. subtilis cells using fluorescent reporters, we demonstrate that sporulation timing controls nutrient-induced spore revival. Alanine dehydrogenase contributes to spore memory and controls alanine-induced outgrowth, thereby coupling a spore's revival capacity to the gene expression and growth history of its progenitors. A theoretical analysis, and experiments with signaling mutants exhibiting altered sporulation timing, support the hypothesis that such an intrinsically generated memory leads to a tradeoff between spore quantity and spore quality, which could drive the emergence of complex microbial traits.
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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.