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Bacillus atrophaeus outer spore coat assembly and ultrastructure.

Marco Plomp1, Terrance J Leighton, Katherine E Wheeler

  • 1BioSecurity and NanoSciences Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California 94551, USA.

Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids
|November 3, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Bacillus spore coats feature a crystalline rodlet layer. Further atomic force microscopy reveals defects and domain boundaries, suggesting species-specific self-assembly mechanisms for this outer layer.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology and Biophysics
  • Biomolecular Nanotechnology

Background:

  • Previous atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies characterized the Bacillus atrophaeus spore coat ultrastructure.
  • The outer spore coat surface is composed of a crystalline array of ~11 nm thick rodlets with ~8 nm periodicity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To conduct further AFM investigations on the surface architecture of Bacillus spores under varying hydration states.
  • To identify structural features within the spore coat rodlet layer and propose a unifying self-assembly mechanism.

Main Methods:

  • Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) for high-resolution imaging of spore surface architecture.
  • Analysis of both air-dried and fully hydrated Bacillus spore samples.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Identification of planar and point defects, along with domain boundaries, within the rodlet layer.
  • Observed structural variations across different Bacillus species, linked to nucleation and crystallization processes.
  • Detailed visualization of the crystalline rodlet layer's ultrastructure and surface morphology.

    • Conclusions:

    • The rodlet layer exhibits crystalline defects and domain structures analogous to inorganic and macromolecular crystals.
    • Species-specific nucleation and crystallization mechanisms likely govern the assembly and variation of the outer spore coat.
    • A unifying mechanism for the nucleation and self-assembly of the crystalline rodlet layer is proposed.