Screen for agents that induce autolysis in Bacillus subtilis.

Disruption of Autolysis in Bacillus subtilis using TiO2 Nanoparticles

In contrast to many nanotoxicity studies where nanoparticles (NPs) are observed to be toxic or reduce viable cells in a population of bacteria, we observed that increasing concentration of TiO2 NPs increased the cell survival of Bacillus subtilis in autolysis-inducing buffer by 0.5 to 5 orders of magnitude over an 8 hour exposure. Molecular investigations revealed that TiO2 NPs prevent or delay...

The lytE gene of Bacillus subtilis 168 encodes a cell wall hydrolase.

Bacillus subtilis cell wall-bound protein CWBP33 is encoded by lytE, a gene expressed during the exponential growth phase. Sequence analysis of LytE, a 33-kDa protein, reveals two domains. The N-terminal domain contains a threefold-repeated motif common to several peptidoglycan binding proteins, while the C-terminal domain, probably carrying the catalytic activity, has homology with certain exo...

Autolysis of Cell Walls of Bacillus Subtilis. Mechanism and Possible Relationship to Competence.

Involvement of autolysin in cellular lysis of Bacillus subtilis induced by short- and medium-chain fatty acids.

The addition of saturated C6, C8, C10, and C12 fatty acids appeared to lyse actively growing cells of Bacillus subtilis 168, as judged by a decrease in the optical density of the culture. Of these fatty acids, dodecanoic acid was the most effective, with 50% lysis occurring in about 30 min at a concentration of 0.5 mM. These conditions also decreased the amount of peptidoglycan estimated by the...

Molecular Detection of Lipase A gene in Putative Bacillus subtilis Strains Isolated from Soil

The present study was undertaken to screen the soil samples collected in Iran for the presence of the Bacillus subtilis lipase A gene. The bacterial colonies obtained from the collected soil samples were examined by physical appearance, biochemical tests and  the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Only four colonies were identified as putative B. subtilis strains and all contained the lipase A ge...