Figure 2.

Sporulation efficiency of 630△erm spoIIDMP mutants in nutrient medium shows that spoIID and spoIIP, but not spoIIM are required for sporulation. Spores were undetectable for △spoIID (B) and △spoIIP (D), while normal sporulation was observed for WT (A) and △spoIIM (C). Complementation resulted in restored spore formation to WT levels (cyan lines). BHIS cultures were grown to OD₆₀₀ ~0.6, sub‐cultured 1:10,000 in fresh medium and allowed to reach stationary phase (t0). Samples were removed at the indicated time points, serially diluted in sterile, pre‐reduced PBS and plated onto BHIS agar supplemented with 0.1% Taurocholate (Tch) with (spore CFU) or without (total CFU) prior heat‐treatment at 70°C for 30 min. Colonies were enumerated after 24 h of incubation under anaerobic conditions. Data presented as means ± SD from experiments performed in biological triplicate. Dotted line denotes the limit of detection of the assay (5 × 10¹ CFU).