[Mechanisms of Forespore Formation during Polysporogenesis of an Anaerobic Bacterium Anaerobacter polyendosporus...

Forespore formation in the anaerobic bacterium Anaerobacterpolyendosporus PS-1(T) was studied by phase contrast, fluorescence, and electron microscopy. It is concluded that in this bacterium the formation of all forespores in multispore sporangia occurs via the same mechanism as that operating in all known bacilli and clostridia during the single-spore variant of endogenous sporogenesis. Its cytological indicators are as follows: (1) formation of the forespore septum, (2) engulfment of the smaller prespore cell by the larger mother cell, (3) cortex synthesis, (4) assembly of the spore coats, (5) exosporium formation, and (6) lysis of the mother cell. Polysporogenesis in strain PS-1(T) is characterized by synchronous formation of all spores (siblings) in a given sporangium and by the absence of any indication of forespore division within the mother cell. These data suggest that multiple spores within a single PS-1(T) cell result not from division of the first forespores developing at one or two cell poles, as it was reported for another polysporogenic bacterium, "Metabacterium polyspora", but rather from simultaneous independent formation of several prespores in a single mother cell in the course of modified cell division.