A sporulation medium for strict anaerobes

The production of spores, and spore position and shape, are taxonomic criteria in a number of genera of bacteria. The heat resistance of spores is also of interest taxonomically and with respect to the survival of bacteria, particularly pathogens, in a number of habitats. The demonstration of spore formation by growth of bacteria in various standard media and under different conditions (e.g. at sub‐optimum temperature) is often not easy. Thus, a number of media designed to encourage spore formation and to produce spores with maximum heat resistance have been introduced, for instance for Clostridium perfringens (Ellner 1956; Angelotti et al. 1962; Kim et al. 1967; Duncan & Strong 1968) and Sporolactobacillus inulinus (Kitahara & Lai 1967).