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. 1978 Aug 15;174(2):627–634. doi: 10.1042/bj1740627

Metabolism and the triggering of germination of Bacillus megaterium. Concentrations of amino acids, organic acids, adenine nucleotides and nicotinamide nucleotides during germination.

I R Scott, D J Ellar
PMCID: PMC1185956  PMID: 101212

Abstract

A considerable amount of evidence suggests that metabolism of germinants or metabolism stimulated by them is involved in triggering bacterial-spore germination. On the assumption that such a metabolic trigger might lead to relatively small biochemical changes in the first few minutes of germination, sensitive analytical techniques were used to detect any changes in spore components during the L-alanine-triggered germination of Bacillus megaterium KM spores. These experiments showed that no changes in spore free amino acids or ATP occurred until 2-3 min after L-alanine addition. Spores contained almost no oxo acids (pyruvate, alpha-oxoglutarate, oxaloacetate), malate or reduced NAD. These compounds were again not detectable until 2-3 min after addition of germinants. It is suggested, therefore, that metabolism associated with these intermediates is not involved in the triggering of germination of this organism.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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