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Nature Reviews Microbiology 6, 714 (1 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrmicro2003

Bacterial Physiology: Energizing the spore coat

Andrew Jermy

Spores formed by Bacillus subtilis are encased in a complex multilayered coat that comprises more than 50 different proteins. Ramamurthi and Losick have published a study in Molecular Cell which shows that ATP hydrolysis by the morphogenic coat protein SpoIVA, which enables the self-assembly of SpoIVA polymers, is of central importance in spore-coat formation.