What Is Sporulation? What Triggers Sporulation? in Bacteria That Form

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Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is Sporulation is the formation of endospores which are not metabolically active and are very resistant to extreme conditions and stress. The endospore cannot divide but can wake up when conditions for growth are restored. Endospores are generally triggered during stationary phase in response to environmental,metabolic and cell cycle signals.
It would be harmful for the whole population to sporulate if the conditions changed rapidly or not predictably,if for example within those eight hours the nutrients where restored then the whole population would be unable to respond as they would still be sporulating. Also if there were a false alarm it would also be harmful for the whole population to sporulate.
An advantage to continuously forming spores are mainly in rapidly changing or unpredictable conditions as there will always be a safety net (spores)already formed. A disadvantage to continuously forming spores is that spores are not dividing,therefore they do not contribute to increasing the size of the bacteria population (e.g.,fitness)and could be seen as diverted resource.

What Is Sporulation? What Triggers Sporulation? in Bacteria That Form

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