Researchers from Harvard Medical School have made a significant discovery regarding the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax. They have identified a cellular sensor that allows dormant bacterial spores to sense nutrients in their environment, enabling them to revive from prolonged dormancy. This breakthrough addresses a century-old mystery of how inert spores awaken after years of inactivity, resisting extreme conditions like heat, UV radiation, and antibiotics. The newly discovered sensor proteins function as channels that remain closed during dormancy but open when nutrients are detected, allowing ions to flow out, triggering the shedding of protective layers and metabolic reactivation.
The findings provide insights into combatting bacterial resistance and could inform infection prevention and food safety strategies. Notably, the study revealed that understanding how these spores respond to nutrients could lead to methods for either inducing germination for sterilization or preventing germination to inhibit bacterial growth. This research, highlighting the role of artificial intelligence in protein structure prediction, contributes to significant advancements in managing dangerous pathogens that utilize the spore formation strategy, including Clostridioides difficile, which poses serious health risks following antibiotic treatments.
