Autoregulation of stress response in microorganisms

Examples are considered of the involvement of low-molecular-weight autoregulators in the development of resistance of proliferating microbial cultures to unfavorable environmental impacts of various intensity, including impacts programmed to occur in the developmental cycle ("new medium stress," starvation stress) and nonprogrammed impacts. It was shown that extracellular adaptation factors control the reversible adhesion of cells in submerged cultures and the processes of cell reactivation in the poststress period and are involved in the stabilization of cellular biopolymers (proteins and DNA) and subcellular structures (membranes); the adaptogens of the phenolic type also act as efficient scavengers of reactive oxygen species. The protective effect of the adaptogenic autoregulators is manifested in the increase of resistance of microbial cells to stressors of various nature and in the preservation of the cell proliferative capacity.