CONDITIONS AFFECTING BACILLUS MEGATERIUM SPORE GERMINATION IN GLUCOSE OR VARIOUS NITROGENOUS COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Hyatt, Mildred T. (Quartermaster Research and Engineering Center, Natick, Mass.) and Hillel S. Levinson . Conditions affecting Bacillus megaterium spore germination in glucose or various nitrogenous compounds. J. Bacteriol. 83: 1231–1237. 1962.—The possibility that there is more than one metabolic pathway for triggering germination of Bacillus megaterium spores was investigated. Spores were germinated in seven different “physiological germinants” under varying conditions of concentration, pH, combinations of germinants, temperature before and during germination, and chemical inhibition. l -Alanine and l -valine appear to induce germination via the same metabolic pathway (same inhibitors are effective, similar germination rate and temperature requirements); and glucose and glucosamine also appear to act similarly, but by a different pathway than l -alanine and l -valine. The other germinants, l -leucine, l -proline, and KNO 3 , do not correspond in all respects either to the glucose-glucosamine or to the alanine-valine pair in response to the different germination conditions. It is concluded that B. megaterium spore germination occurs via more than one pathway.