ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2019
From Root to Tips: Sporulation Evolution and Specialization in Bacillus subtilis and the Intestinal Pathogen Clostridioides difficile.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- From colonization to infection: Genomic evolution of Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis.Cell reports · 2026Review
- Distinctive spore architecture and developmental biology ofJournal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Diversity of Bacteria.Progress in molecular and subcellular biology · 2026Review
- Structural characterization and biophysical analysis of recombinant SpoIVB variants: insights into PDZ and serine protease domain interactions.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Real-time nanoscale investigation of spore coat assembly in Bacillus subtilis.Communications biology · 2025Article
- SpoIIIL is a forespore factor required for efficient cell-cell signalling during Bacillus subtilis sporulation.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Embedding a ribonuclease in the spore crust couples gene expression to spore development in Bacillus subtilis.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Mfd deficiency decreases the abundance of complete transcripts of sporulation genes and alters sporogenesis and the structure of dormantFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Uncovering newMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Global insights into the genome dynamics ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Clostridioides difficile Sporulation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Pathogenicity and virulence ofVirulence · 2023Review
- A sporulation signature protease is required for assembly of the spore surface layers, germination and host colonization in Clostridioides difficile.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Expression profiles of sporulation genes in multidrug-resistantExperimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2023Article
- ProfilingFuture science OA · 2023Review
- Multiple roads lead to Rome: unique morphology and chemistry of endospores, exospores, myxospores, cysts and akinetes in bacteria.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Article
- Phage-Encoded Sigma Factors Alter Bacterial Dormancy.mSphere · 2022Article
- Conservation and Evolution of the Sporulation Gene Set in Diverse Members of theJournal of bacteriology · 2022Article
- Article
- Mechanisms and Applications of Bacterial Sporulation and Germination in the Intestine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
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3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bacteria of the Firmicutes phylum are able to enter a developmental pathway that culminates with the formation of highly resistant, dormant endospores. Endospores allow environmental persistence, dissemination and for pathogens, are also infection vehicles. In both the model Bacillus subtilis, an aerobic organism, and in the intestinal pathogen Clostridioides difficile, an obligate anaerobe, sporulation mobilizes hundreds of genes. Their expression is coordinated between the forespore and the mother cell, the two cells that participate in the process, and is kept in close register with the course of morphogenesis. The evolutionary mechanisms by which sporulation emerged and evolved in these two species, and more broadly across Firmicutes, remain largely unknown. Here, we trace the origin and evolution of sporulation using the genes known to be involved in the process in B. subtilis and C. difficile, and estimating their gain-loss dynamics in a comprehensive bacterial macroevolutionary framework. We show that sporulation evolution was driven by two major gene gain events, the first at the base of the Firmicutes and the second at the base of the B. subtilis group and within the Peptostreptococcaceae family, which includes C. difficile. We also show that early and late sporulation regulons have been coevolving and that sporulation genes entail greater innovation in B. subtilis with many Bacilli lineage-restricted genes. In contrast, C. difficile more often recruits new sporulation genes by horizontal gene transfer, which reflects both its highly mobile genome, the complexity of the gut microbiota, and an adjustment of sporulation to the gut ecosystem.
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