Studies on Spore Germination: Its Independence From Alanine Racemase Activity

The demonstration in the past few years that simple nutrients are sufficient to enable a rapid germination of spores from aerobic bacteria has stimulated an interest in the biochemical re-actions involved. Glucose, adenosine, and certain amino acids, added singly or in combination, were found by a number of workers to be sufficient to lead to over 90 per cent germination of spores from a number of aerobic strains within a 30 minute period (Knaysi, 1945; EHils, 1949a, b, 1950; Pulvertaft and Haynes, 1951; Powell, 1950). Among the bacillus strains, Hills and co-workers found that of these nutrients L-alanine played the most prominent and general role. Its activity could be inhibited by D-alanine but not by a series