The endospore is formed at times of nutritional stress, allowing the organism to persist in the environment until conditions become favourable.

This nutritional stress could be seasonal and/or the result of childhood diseases.

These loci provide a control mechanism that helps free-living prokaryotes cope with nutritional stress.

During the starvation period, the subjects received two meals per day designed to induce the same level of nutritional stress for each participant.

Females under nutritional stress will have higher rates of egg mortality and less survival of offspring to adult emergence.

This more widely separates lactating females from their calves, increasing nutritional stress for the young and lower reproductive rates.

A high incidence of the disease indicates the population adapted poorly to its environment or was under nutritional stress.

It was noted that during nutritional stress, old adults died in more numbers, of which most were males.

Under nutritional stress bacterial colonies can organise themselves in such a way so as to maximise nutrient availability.

Identifies new or re-emerging pathogens, pests, environmental and nutritional stresses, and pesticides as possible causative factors.