The irradiation of bacterial spores with low-voltage electrons

EFFECTS OF CRUSHING ON THE STRUCTURE AND VIABILITY OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS SPORES

“…Therefore it is unlikely in the case of the species used in this study that any obvious correlation can be made between regions having certain electron density distributions and those having specific staining properties and carrying out nuclear functions. In the case of radiation effects, Davis (1954) concluded that the portion of the spore of B. subtilis sensitive to radiation is organized into molecules dispersed throughout the interior so that no large region of greatest sensitivity is present. The present study has indicated that in addition the relative positions of all molecules in the spore is of little importance and consequently the spore can be mechanically distorted without lethal results.…”

Gamma Irradiation of Bacillus subtilis Spores in the Presence of Sugars

“…The protective effect demonstrated in freeze-dried sugars is in each case greater than that shown by Proctor et al (1955), and it seems unlikely that this is the complete explanation. Formation of toxic radicals outside the cell may be neglected as a factor in the mechanism of inactivation by ionizing radiations (Davis, 1954 ;Hutchinson, 1955Hutchinson, , 1957. In addition to the 'direct' effect of ionizing radiation, toxic free-radicals produced within spores contribute to their inactivation (Powers, Webb & Ehret, 1960).…”

Low-energy ion bombardment of frozen bacterial spores and its relevance to interplanetary space

“…The survival of spores exposed only to vacuum and freezing was about 90%. According to the target theory [20], the plot can be generally interpreted as a survival curve indicating a cumulative action of radiation analogously as in the case of slow electrons for which similar survival curves were obtained [21,22]. This means that particular spores are inactivated by various numbers of impinging ions.…”