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. 1978 Aug 15;174(2):635–640. doi: 10.1042/bj1740635

Metabolism and the triggering of germination of Bacillus megaterium. Use of L-[3H]alanine and tritiated water to detect metabolism.

I R Scott, D J Ellar
PMCID: PMC1185957  PMID: 101213

Abstract

L-[2,3-3H]Alanine was used to probe for metabolism of alanine during triggering of germination of spores of Bacillus megaterium KM. No detectable incorporation of label into any compound, including water, was found, indicating that any metabolism involving the alanine germinant must be at a very low rate and also that alanine racemase is absent from spores of this strain. Spores were germinated in 3H2O to find if any of the many metabolic reactions causing irreversible incorporation of 3H into reaction products took place during triggering of germination. No incorporation was detected until 2-3 min after addition of germinants. It is therefore concluded that a wide variety of metabolic routes, including glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, the pentose phosphate pathway and amino acid metabolism are either not involved in the reactions causing the triggering of germination or operate at an extremely low rate during this process.

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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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