Bacillus cereus spore germination: Absolute requirement for an amino acid

The Presence of Low Molecular Weight Germinative Substances in Bacillus cereus T Spore Extract

“…8 could induce germination with a trace amount of L-alanine, but the concentration of L-alanine itself was too low to induce germination. It is considered that the most probable substance effective in this fraction is a nucleoside-like compound, since L-alanine is a powerful stimulator for germination of B. cereus spores induced by inosine or related nucleosides (5,11,17,19). In fact, by reverse-phase HPLC and FAB-MS, we found inosine in peak IV, which was the only peak which proved to be effective for germination (Figs.…”

Germination of Unactivated Spores ofBacillus cereusT

“…It is well known that heat-activated spores of B. cereus T can germinate in the presence of either L-alanine alone or inosine alone [1,6,14,22]. In contrast, unactivated spores do not germinate in the presence of either germinant alone but germinate rapidly without heat activation in the presence of L-alanine and inosine [22].…”

“…LAlanine is one of the most effective germinants and its role in germination has been studied by many workers [7,14,19]. Vary and Halvorson [12] suggested that L-alanine might act as a cofactor of germination enzymes, and Woese et al [20] predicted from a study on kinetic models for germination that L-alanine was not an allosteric effector but a substrate for germination enzymes.…”

“…Vary and Halvorson [12] suggested that L-alanine might act as a cofactor of germination enzymes, and Woese et al [20] predicted from a study on kinetic models for germination that L-alanine was not an allosteric effector but a substrate for germination enzymes. On the other hand, it was proposed that L-alanine had two separate functional roles in germination of spores of Bacillus subtilis by Wax et al [17,18] and in Bacillus cereus by Warren and Gould [14]. Recently, Watabe et al [15,16] observed that two distinct modes of 14C-L-alanine uptake were shown during germination of spores of Bacillus thiaminolyticus.…”

“…In particular, it was pointed out that inosine greatly stimulated germination in the presence of L-alanine [1,5,14,22]. Among B. cereus spores, even dormant spores (in the sense of unactivated spores) germinated in the presence of L-alanine and inosine at very low concentrations, even though they could not germinate in the presence of either germinant alone, except for aged or activated spores [22].…”