Endospore Stain

Ever wish in stressful moments you could just curl up in a shell and weather it out? Well if you're a cell with an endospore you can! An endospore is a hard capsule that the cell shrivels up into when there is stress in the environment that makes it's habitat unlivable, such as a lack of nutrients, extreme temperatures, or lack of water. A cell can remain in this state for an indefinite time, and when favorable conditions return...POP! out comes the cell from its vegetative state and is ready to start living like nothing ever happened.  Our bacteri does have endospores and this is fairly characteristic of gram positive microbes.  The way we can tell is that there are little green spots inside which are the endospores.

Bacteria with Endospores

We lost our picture of bacteria with endospores. The above picture is a picture of Bacillis subtilis with endospores from the internet.