The use of quality control mechanisms to stall developmental pathways or completely remove defective cells from a population is a widespread strategy to ensure the integrity of morphogenetic programs. Endospore formation (sporulation) is a well conserved microbial developmental strategy in the Firmicutes phylum wherein a progenitor cell that faces starvation differentiates to form a dormant spore. Despite the conservation of this strategy, it has been unclear what selective pressure maintains the fitness of this developmental program, composed of hundreds of unique genes, during multiple rounds of vegetative growth when sporulation is not required. Recently, a quality control pathway was discovered in Bacillus subtilis which monitors the assembly of the spore envelope and specifically eliminates, through cell lysis, sporulating cells that assemble the envelope incorrectly. Here, we review the use of checkpoints that govern the entry into sporulation in B. subtilis and discuss how the use of regulated cell death pathways during bacterial development may help maintain the fidelity of the sporulation program in the species.

使用质量控制机制阻止发育途径或从种群中完全清除缺陷细胞是确保形态发生程序完整性的广泛策略。内生孢子的形成（孢子形成）是沙门氏菌中一种保存完好的微生物发育策略，其中面对饥饿的祖细胞分化成休眠孢子。尽管保留了这种策略，但尚不清楚在不需要孢子形成的多轮营养生长过程中，什么选择压力会维持这​​种由数百个独特基因组成的发育程序的适应性。最近，在枯草芽孢杆菌中发现了质量控制途径可以监控孢子包膜的组装，并通过细胞裂解特别消除孢子形成不正确的包膜的细胞。在这里，我们审查了支配枯草芽孢杆菌进入孢子形成过程的检查点的使用，并讨论了在细菌发育过程中使用受调控的细胞死亡途径可能如何帮助维持物种中的孢子形成程序的保真度。