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Published Online June 19, 2003
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1086462

Reports

Submitted on May 5, 2003
Accepted on June 6, 2003

Cannibalism by Sporulating Bacteria

José E. González-Pastor 1, Errett C. Hobbs 2, Richard Losick 2*

1 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Present Address: Centro Nacional de Biotecnología CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
2 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: losick{at}mcb.harvard.edu.

Spore formation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis is an elaborate developmental process that is triggered by nutrient limitation. Here we report that cells that have entered the pathway to sporulate produce and export a killing factor and a novel signaling protein that act cooperatively to block sister cells from sporulating and to cause them to lyse. The sporulating cells feed on the nutrients thereby released, allowing them to keep growing rather than completing morphogenesis. We propose that sporulation is a stress-response pathway of last resort and that B. subtilis delays a commitment to spore formation by cannibalizing its siblings.


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