The most common method of endospore staining is the Schaeffer-Fulton method because they use a malachite green stain that does show up on endospores. Since endospores are so hardcore, it’s been difficult to find dyes that will permeate endospores. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Endospore Formation () Staining Procedure To learn more about endospores, visit the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences website, and check out the YouTube video below to see how an endospore is formed. The SASPs not only protect the DNA and RNA strands, but they are also responsible for protecting the endospore cell from UV light. The core of an endospore contains the bacteria’s DNA, RNA, acid-soluble proteins (SASPs), and a high concentration of dipicolinic acid, which is the reason the endospore can remain dormant. Once you get past all those shields, you’ll find the inner core. And the inner membrane keeps damaging chemicals from getting to the core. The germ cell wall isn’t super protective, but it will become the outer cell wall once again when the endospore becomes a vegetative cell once more. Dehydration helps protect it from high temperatures. The cortex is there to make sure the endospore is fully dehydrated, which might not sound great to us, but it’s fantastic for the endospore. The outer coat is directly exposed to the elements, so it protects the cell from most enzyme and chemical attacks. The layers of an endospore outer shell (from outer to inner) are as follows:Īll five of those layers play different roles in the protection and survival of the endospore cell.
While they’re being formed, endospores gain many more layers of protection. There are seven main steps to endospore formation: First the asymmetrical division into two different parts of the cell, engulfment of the smaller cell (forespore), synthesis of the forespore’s cortex and different layers, forespore becoming an endospore, and finally, the lysis (disintegration) of the mother cell.Įndospores, unlike regular Gram-positive bacterial cells, don’t just have a peptidoglycan cell wall and cytoplasmic outer membrane. If the cell feels threatened (either by lack of nutrients or other outside circumstances), it will begin the process to form an endospore. Because of this, endospores are extremely difficult to kill, and the same antibacterial and antimicrobial chemicals that would kill a living cell won’t do anything to an endospore.Įndospores are formed when the bacteria cell starts to feel a certain amount of stress. Įndospores are dormant cells that are highly resistant to anything that would normally kill a vegetative cell. When bacterial cells feel a certain amount of “stress” (they don’t have enough nutrients to survive), they will turn their vegetative (living) cells into endospores.
Endospores are a way for select Gram-positive bacteria to survive in extreme circumstances.
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