Sporulation is a well-studied process executed with varying efficiency by diverse yeast strains. We developed a high-throughput method to quantify yeast sporulation efficiency and used this technique to analyze a line cross between a high-efficiency oak tree isolate and a low-efficiency wine strain. We find that natural variation in sporulation efficiency mirrors natural variation in higher euk...

Co-culturing of actinomycetes is a classical approach used to enhance bioactivity. In this study, co-culturing of terrestrial and marine actinomycetes was performed to obtain increased anticancer cytotoxic activity. Crude extract prepared from co-cultured isolates showed increased anticancer activity. Although normal and healthy actinomycetes filament was observed during co-culture, spore forma...

A thermosensitive sporulation mutant of Bacillus subtilis containing a mutation in the secY gene was isolated and characterized. No asymmetric septum specific to the sporulation was detected by electron microscopy at the nonpermissive temperature, indicating that the block occurred at a very early stage of sporulation. Furthermore, competence development in the mutant cell was affected even at ...

A review of reproduction in the myxomycetes reveals that they have a basic one-locus multiplealleleic heterothallic mating system, which controls syngamy between haploid amoeboflagellates to produce the diploid plasmodium. However, each morphologically defined species contains a number of biological sibling species that can’t interbreed with each other and are centered in different regions of t...

We model theoretically the response of the widely studied circadian oscillator of Neurospora crassa to inactivation of the frq gene. The resulting organism has been termed "arrhythmic" under constant conditions. Under entrainment to periodic temperature cycles Roenneberg, Merrow and coworkers have shown that the phase angle at which spore formation occurs depends on the entrainment period, curi...

Mathematical models have been developed and used for predicting growth of foodborne pathogens in various food matrices. However, these early models either used microbiological media or other model systems to develop the predictive models. Some of these models have been shown to be inaccurate for applications in meat and specific food matrices, especially under dynamic conditions, such as consta...

A model system for investigating how developmental regulatory networks determine cell fate is spore formation in Bacillus subtilis. The master regulator for sporulation is Spo0A, which is activated by phosphorylation via a phosphorelay that is subject to three positive feedback loops. The ultimate decision to sporulate is, however, stochastic in that only a portion of the population sporulates ...

Bacillus megaterium uyuni S29, isolated from the Bolivian salt lake Uyuni, displays a high capability to produce poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (PHB) in industrial culture media. In order to analyze the influence of salt on biomass formation and PHB production, cultivations at different NaCl concentrations were carried out according to the salinity conditions of the habitats of the strain's origin...