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While significantly resistant to heat and radiation, endospores can be destroyed by burning or by autoclaving at a temperature exceeding the boiling point of water, 100 °C. Endospores are able to survive at 100 °C for hours, although the larger the number of hours the fewer that will survive.
Endospores can last for decades in multiple hard conditions, such as drying and freezing. This is because the DNA inside the endospore can survive over a long period. Most bacteria are unable to form endospores due to their high resistance, but some common species are the genera Bacillus ( over 100 species) and Clostridium (over 160 species). [2]
Tyndallization is a process from the nineteenth century for sterilizing substances, usually food, named after its inventor John Tyndall, that can be used to kill heat-resistant endospores. Although now considered dated, it is still occasionally used. [citation needed]
Endospores show no detectable metabolism and can survive extreme physical and chemical stresses, such as high levels of UV light, gamma radiation, detergents, disinfectants, heat, freezing, pressure, and desiccation. [95] In this dormant state, these organisms may remain viable for millions of years.
B. subtilis can divide symmetrically to make two daughter cells (binary fission), or asymmetrically, producing a single endospore that is resistant to environmental factors such as heat, desiccation, radiation and chemical insult which can persist in the environment for long periods of time. The endospore is formed at times of nutritional ...
Its endospores can survive up to 6 years in space if coated by dust particles protecting it from solar UV rays. [48] It has been used as an extremophile survival indicator in outer space such as Exobiology Radiation Assembly, [49] [50] EXOSTACK, [51] [52] and EXPOSE orbital missions. [53] [54] [55]
A similar resting spore life stage is also present in diatoms, and in such case, is also often referred to as the hypnospore. Importantly, the resting spore of marine diatoms is not an obligate stage of the life cycle, [1] except in the minority of studied taxa, where spore production immediately follows the first cellular product of sexual reproduction, the auxospore. [2]
Upon exposure to various conditions, C. tetani can shed its flagellums and form a spore. [1] Each cell can form a single spore, generally at one end of the cell, giving the cell a distinctive drumstick shape. [1] C. tetani spores are extremely hardy and are resistant to heat, various antiseptics, and boiling for several minutes. [2]