Figure 1.

Bacterial endospores. Panel A shows endospores from B. subtilis one of which is still retained within the rod shaped 'mother cell'. In B. subtilis, spores are approximately 1.2 μm in length and are ellipsoidal. Released spores have a clear protective shell known as the spore coat and is comprised of as many as 25 different protomeric components assembled into discrete layers. Panel B shows a typical SDS-PAGE (12.5%) fractionation of solubilised spore coat proteins revealing predominant species.