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Bacterial endospore formation involves the phagocytosis-like engulfment of the forespore by the mother cell, which results in the release of the forespore into the mother cell cytoplasm, where spore assembly is completed. Shown here is an electron micrograph of a wild-type Bacillus subtilis forespore that has been almost completely engulfed by the mother cell. Shown below are wild-type, sporulating B. subtilis cells expressing a GFP-SpoIIP fusion construct (green) that were stained with MitoTracker Red dye (red) to visualize the membranes. SpoIIP, a maternally expressed protein, is required for septal thinning and membrane migration during engulfment. (For details, see Abanes-De Mello et al., p. 3253.)