N‐Acetylmuramic acid inhibits spore germination and germination enzymes

Abstract

This report describes the inhibition of spore germination by N-acetylmuramic acid. At concentrations of 20 mM and higher, the rate of germination of the treated spores was ten-fold lower than that of the control spores. The inhibitor also depressed the activity of two germination-related enzymes; a coat-associated hexosaminidase and a core enzyme. These findings suggests that N-acetylmuramic acid affects spore germination by inhibition of the corticolytic enzymes. The results are discussed with respect to the possible role of these enzymes in germination.

Potential use of inhibitors of bacteria spore germination in the prophylactic treatment of anthrax andClostridium difficile-associated disease

“…Protease inhibitors and sulphydryl reagents significantly inhibit nutrient germination of spores in a number of Bacillus species [30,56,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66]. It has been suggested that cadmium acetate, N-ethylmaleimide and HgCl 2 target essential sulphydryl groups of proteins involved in the early steps of spore germination [65].…”