Glassy State in Bacterial Spores Predicted by Polymer Glass‐Transition Theory

Polymer glass‐transition theory was used to gain information about a possible general mechanism to explain the high heat resistance of bacterial spores. In a glassy state the configuration of vital macrom‐olecules and supramolecular assemblies in the spore protoplast would change extremely slowly when heated. The temperature dependence for heat inactivation rates above the glass‐transition temperature was shown to be free‐volume dependent and described by the kinetics commonly observed for glassy polymers. Glass‐transition temperatures for various spores, predicted by nonlinear regression analysis of their heat inactivation rates at different temperatures, increased with increasing heat resistance as expected.