Bacillus spore awakening: recent discoveries and technological developments

Abstract

Elucidating the mechanistic basis of spore germination and outgrowth remains a difficult challenge with crucial implications in the numerous scientific and engineering disciplines. Omics studies have revealed numerous new biochemical insights and single-spore studies link molecular insights directly with spore heterogeneity behaviors. This field is expected to advance at greater speed with the application of newer omics tools such as metabolomics and ingenious combination of omics with single-spore techniques. Combining the modern techniques with traditional techniques will resolve the inconsistencies in literature such as the case of protein synthesis in germination. Lastly, mining of the experimental data with data science tools is expected to reveal new insights in the regulatory networks in spore germination and outgrowth.