Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1971 May;106(2):672–678. doi: 10.1128/jb.106.2.672-678.1971

Morphological Changes and Antibiotic-Induced Thermal Resistance in Vegetative Cells of Bacillus subtilis

Michael J Dul a,1, William C McDonald b
PMCID: PMC285144  PMID: 4995654

Abstract

The morphology and thermal resistance of vegetative cells of Bacillus subtilis W168 were examined after growth at 37 and 53 C. Vegetative cells grown at 37 C exhibited a typical trilaminar morphology, whereas cells grown at 53 C exhibited a cell wall which was apparently thicker and more loosely organized and had a poorly defined periphery. A concurrent increase in thermal resistance to a heat shock of 60 C occurs with the change in cell wall morphology. The change to the aberrant cell wall form, or its reversal to the normal form, is always accompanied by the gain or the loss of thermal resistance, respectively. The inhibition of protein synthesis by chloramphenicol has little effect upon the acquisition of thermal resistance at 53 C. Addition of the disaccharide pentapeptide subunit to the cell wall peptidoglycan is apparently essential to growth at 53 C and the acquisition of thermal resistance, since both growth and thermal resistance are inhibited by bacitracin. Two antibiotics, penicillin and cycloserine, which inhibit the final cross-linking of the cell wall peptidoglycan at two separate points, do not affect the acquisition of thermal resistance at 53 C. These same antibiotics induce a high degree of thermal resistance at 37 C. It is proposed that a change in the cell wall structure is related to an increased thermal resistance.

Full text

PDF
672

Images in this article

673Image
on p.673

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bausum H. T., Matney T. S. Boundary Between Bacterial Mesophilism and Thermophilism. J Bacteriol. 1965 Jul;90(1):50–53. doi: 10.1128/jb.90.1.50-53.1965. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cole R. M., Popkin T. J., Boylan R. J., Mendelson N. H. Ultrastructure of a temperature-sensitive rod- mutant of Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol. 1970 Sep;103(3):793–810. doi: 10.1128/jb.103.3.793-810.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Krulwich T. A., Ensign J. C., Tipper D. J., Strominger J. L. Sphere-rod morphogenesis in Arthrobacter crystallopoietes. I. Cell wall composition and polysaccharides of the peptidoglycan. J Bacteriol. 1967 Sep;94(3):734–740. doi: 10.1128/jb.94.3.734-740.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Krulwich T. A., Ensign J. C., Tipper D. J., Strominger J. L. Sphere-rod morphogenesis in Arthrobacter crystallopoietes. II. Peptides of the cell wall peptidoglycan. J Bacteriol. 1967 Sep;94(3):741–750. doi: 10.1128/jb.94.3.741-750.1967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. LUFT J. H. Improvements in epoxy resin embedding methods. J Biophys Biochem Cytol. 1961 Feb;9:409–414. doi: 10.1083/jcb.9.2.409. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Neale E. K., Chapman G. B. Effect of low temperature on the growth and fine structure of Bacillus subtilis. J Bacteriol. 1970 Oct;104(1):518–528. doi: 10.1128/jb.104.1.518-528.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. REYNOLDS E. S. The use of lead citrate at high pH as an electron-opaque stain in electron microscopy. J Cell Biol. 1963 Apr;17:208–212. doi: 10.1083/jcb.17.1.208. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Siewert G., Strominger J. L. Bacitracin: an inhibitor of the dephosphorylation of lipid pyrophosphate, an intermediate in the biosynthesis of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 Mar;57(3):767–773. doi: 10.1073/pnas.57.3.767. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Spizizen J. TRANSFORMATION OF BIOCHEMICALLY DEFICIENT STRAINS OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS BY DEOXYRIBONUCLEATE. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1958 Oct 15;44(10):1072–1078. doi: 10.1073/pnas.44.10.1072. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Strominger J. L., Izaki K., Matsuhashi M., Tipper D. J. Peptidoglycan transpeptidase and D-alanine carboxypeptidase: penicillin-sensitive enzymatic reactions. Fed Proc. 1967 Jan-Feb;26(1):9–22. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Tomasz A. Biological consequences of the replacement of choline by ethanolamine in the cell wall of Pneumococcus: chanin formation, loss of transformability, and loss of autolysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1968 Jan;59(1):86–93. doi: 10.1073/pnas.59.1.86. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. WATSON M. L. Staining of tissue sections for electron microscopy with heavy metals. J Biophys Biochem Cytol. 1958 Jul 25;4(4):475–478. doi: 10.1083/jcb.4.4.475. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. White D., Dworkin M., Tipper D. J. Peptidoglycan of Myxococcus xanthus: structure and relation to morphogenesis. J Bacteriol. 1968 Jun;95(6):2186–2197. doi: 10.1128/jb.95.6.2186-2197.1968. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES