Sandbox Reserved 657: Difference between revisions

Bacteria adapt to changing environmental conditions in two designed states; functioning as a vegetative organism or in a sporulated state.  Sporulation is used to send the cells into a dormant, dehydrated state to protect from harsh environmental conditions <ref>2</ref><ref> 3</ref>.  As conditions become unsuitable for growth, gene clusters are expressed activating the sporulation process.  The process is mediated by signal transduction pathways and specifically through a phosphorelay system <ref>1</ref><ref> 2</ref>.  It is shown sporulation is specifically controlled and regulated though an expanded two component phosphorelay system <ref>3</ref>.  This process consumes large amounts of energy to place the cells into the dormant state and is a highly regulated process.

[[Image:sporulationprocess.jpg]]

Figure 1:  The pathways for vegitative or spore development in bacterial cells.  The figure prensents the phosphorelay involving Histidine Kinase (HK) and the phosphorylation relay between Spo0f/b/a, and the method for cell development to stop sporulation <ref>3</ref>.