Biochemistry of Sporulation I

Hanson, Richard S. (University of Illinois, Urbana), V. R. Srinivasan, and H. Orin Halvorson. Biochemistry of sporulation. I. Metabolism of acetate by vegetative and sporulating cells. J. Bacteriol. 85:451-460. 1963.-The transition from the vegetative to the sporulating cycle in a sporeformer is marked by a change in the enzymatic machinery of the cell. When vegetative cells of Bacillus cereus strain T are grown in a glucose-yeast extract-minerals medium, acetate accumulates until the beginning of the sporulation cycle. The acetate-activating systems are present in the vegetative cells as well as in the cells of the early stages of sporulation, whereas the enzymes necessary for the terminal oxidation of acetate to carbon dioxide are absent in the vegetative stage. The induction of a functional tricarboxylic acid cycle during early sporulation is inhibited by chloramphenicol. alpha-Picolinic acid also prevents morphological, as well as physiological, changes during the transition.