How Moist Heat Kills Spores of Bacillus subtilis
Author
Coleman, William H.; Chen, De; Li, Yong-Qing; Cowan, Ann E.; Setlow, Peter
Abstract
Populations of Bacillus subtilis spores in which 90 to 99.9% of the spores had been killed by moist heat gave only two fractions on equilibrium density gradient centrifugation: a fraction comprised of less dense spores that had lost their dipicolinic acid (DPA), undergone significant protein denaturation, and were all dead and a fraction with the same higher density as that of unheated spores. The latter fraction from heat-killed spore populations retained all of its DPA, but >98% of the spores could be dead. The dead spores that retained DPA germinated relatively normally with nutrient and nonnutrient germinants, but the outgrowth of these germinated spores was significantly compromised, perhaps because they had suffered damage to some proteins such that metabolic activity during outgrowth was greatly decreased. These results indicate that DPA release takes place well after spore killing by moist heat and that DPA release during moist-heat treatment is an all-ornothing phenomenon; these findings also suggest that damage to one or more key spore proteins causes spore killing by moist heat. Originally published Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 189, No. 23, Dec 2007
Date
2007-12
Citation:
APA:
Coleman, William H., & Chen, De, & Li, Yong-Qing, & Cowan, Ann E., & Setlow, Peter. (December 2007).
How Moist Heat Kills Spores of Bacillus subtilis.
Journal of Bacteriology,
189(23),
8458-
8566. Retrieved from
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3218
MLA:
Coleman, William H., and Chen, De, and Li, Yong-Qing, and Cowan, Ann E., and Setlow, Peter.
"How Moist Heat Kills Spores of Bacillus subtilis". Journal of Bacteriology.
189:23. (8458-8566),
December 2007.
April 24, 2024.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3218.
Chicago:
Coleman, William H. and Chen, De and Li, Yong-Qing and Cowan, Ann E. and Setlow, Peter,
"How Moist Heat Kills Spores of Bacillus subtilis," Journal of Bacteriology 189, no.
23 (December 2007),
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3218 (accessed
April 24, 2024).
AMA:
Coleman, William H., Chen, De, Li, Yong-Qing, Cowan, Ann E., Setlow, Peter.
How Moist Heat Kills Spores of Bacillus subtilis. Journal of Bacteriology.
December 2007;
189(23):
8458-8566.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3218. Accessed
April 24, 2024.
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Publisher
East Carolina University