FIG. 3.

(A to C) Effects of germinant concentrations on commitment and DPA release during spore germination. Shown are the commitment (•, ▾, ▪) and DPA release (○, ▿, □) of heat-activated wild-type B. subtilis (PS533) spores germinated with various concentrations of l-valine (A) and AGFK (B) and B. cereus spores germinated with 40 mM NH₄Cl plus various concentrations of l-alanine (C) as described in Materials and Methods. Circles, triangles, and squares, respectively, denote l-valine concentrations of 10, 2, and 1 mM (A), concentrations of 10, 5, and 1.5 mM each component of AGFK (B), and l-alanine concentrations of 6, 1, and 0.3 mM (C). The maximum number of RFU that each germination assay reached upon germination for 6 h in panels A and B and for 30 min in panel C was set at 100%, but the actual germination percentages of spore samples at the end of germination incubations were 95, 82, and 54% in panel A, 85, 68, and 21% in panel B, and 95, 68, and 41% in panel C, going from the highest to the lowest germinant concentrations.