FIG. 2.

Extents of germination of superdormant spores of Bacillus species with different germinants after heat activation at various temperatures. Dormant and superdormant spores of Bacillus species were isolated and heat activated at various temperatures as described in the legend for Fig. 1. After cooling on ice, the spores were germinated for 2 h in either the original germinants (white bars), the alternative germinants (gray bars), or a mixture of both germinants (black bars), and the extent of spore germination was determined by phase-contrast microscopy as described in Materials and Methods. The spores analyzed were B. cereus (A and D), B. megaterium (B and E), B. subtilis (C and F), dormant (A, B, and C), and superdormant (D, E, and F).