Table 4. Maximum rates of germination of wild-type and gerW B. megaterium spores in response to varying concentrations of glucose or proline.

Germinant:	Glucose mM				Proline mM
	0.1	1	10	25	0.1	1	10	25
Strain	Maximum rate of germination—% OD600/min
QM B1551 (wt)	0.67	3.5	15.3	14.1	0.68	3.5	10.4	10.7
GC900 (gerW)	0.59	3.5	14.6	11.8	0.50	2.3	11.1	11.2

B. megaterium spores were heat shocked and incubated in 5 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.8 plus the designated concentration of glucose or proline, and germination was monitored by measuring OD₆₀₀ loss as described in Methods. The maximum % OD₆₀₀ loss per min was calculated from plots of OD₆₀₀ versus time. Values shown are the averages of results from three independent experiments conducted with the same spore preparations, and the standard deviations were <15% of the averages.