Analysis of damage due to moist heat treatment of spores of Bacillus subtilis

AIMS: To determine conditions for generation and recovery of Bacillus subtilis spore populations heavily damaged by moist heat treatment. METHODS AND RESULTS: Bacillus subtilis spores were treated with moist heat and spore viability was assessed on different media. A rich medium and several minimal media gave similar spore recoveries after moist heat treatment, but lack of glucose in minimal media greatly decreased spore recovery. High NaCl levels also greatly decreased the recovery of moist heat-treated spores on minimal media, and addition of good osmoprotectants reversed this effect. Moist heat treatment did not decrease spore recovery on minimal media with high salt through DNA damage or by eliminating spore germination, but by affecting spore outgrowth. CONCLUSIONS: Conditions for generating B. subtilis spore populations with high levels of conditional moist heat damage have been determined. The major conditional damage appears to be in spore outgrowth, perhaps because of damage to one or more important metabolic enzymes. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This work has provided new insight into the mechanism of B. subtilis spore killing by moist heat.