FIG. 5.

(A to C) Germination of spores of C. perfringens strains with KCl. (A) Heat-activated C. perfringens spores of strains SM101(wild-type) (▪), DPS107 (sleC) (▵), DPS109 (sleM) (○), and DPS110 (sleC sleM) (□) were germinated with KCl, and the OD₆₀₀ was measured as described in Materials and Methods. Heat-activated spores of strain SM101 (wild-type) (⧫) were also incubated in 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) alone, and the OD₆₀₀ was measured. (B) DPA release during C. perfringens spore germination with KCl. Heat-activated spores of C. perfringens strains were germinated with KCl, and after 1 h (□) and 18 h (░⃞) the DPA content of the spores was measured as described in Materials and Methods. DPA release of C. perfringens spores from various strains in 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) was as shown in Fig. 4. (C) Release of hexosamine-containing material during C. perfringens spore germination with KCl. Heat-activated spores of C. perfringens strains were germinated with KCl and, after 2 h, the hexosamine-containing material released into the medium was measured as described in Materials and Methods. Values for hexosamine-containing material released are expressed relative to the amount of hexosamine in dormant spores that was defined as 100%. The data represent the average of two independent experiments with two different spore preparations, and error bars indicate the standard deviations.