Chemical germination of native and cation-exchanged bacterial spores with trifluoperazine

Abstract

The calmodulin antagonist trifluoperazine and its analog chlorpromazine, both amphipaths, induced chemical termination of spores of various species, as do many surfactants. Cation load can greatly influence this response. Calmodulin antagonism does not seem to be involved. A new fluorometric assay for dipicolinic acid based on the fluorescence of the dipicolinic acid chelate of Tb3+ was found to be simple and sensitive.