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Exit from dormancy in microbial organisms

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 8, pages 890–896 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Bacteria can exist in metabolically inactive states that allow them to survive conditions that are not conducive for growth. Such dormant cells may sense when conditions have improved and re-initiate growth, lest they be outcompeted by their neighbours. Growing bacteria turn over and release large quantities of their cell walls into the environment. Drawing from recent work on the germination of Bacillus subtilis spores, we propose that many microorganisms exit dormancy in response to cell wall muropeptides.

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Figure 1: Peptidoglycan structure.
Figure 2: Exit from dormancy triggered by growing cells.
Figure 3: Mechanism of translation stimulation by muropeptide-induced phosphorylation of elongation factor G.

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Acknowledgements

We thank H. Shuman for comments on the manuscript. Work from our laboratory is supported by NIH GM81368 and by a Senior Scholar Award in Aging from the Ellison Medical Foundation to J.D.

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  1. Jonathan Dworkin and Ishita M. Shah are at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.,

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Dworkin, J., Shah, I. Exit from dormancy in microbial organisms. Nat Rev Microbiol 8, 890–896 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2453

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