Figure 1.

Maximum rates of spore germination (% of total h⁻¹) and germ‐tube development for Xeromyces bisporus FRR 0025 (A and B), Aspergillus penicillioides JH06THJ (C and D) and Eurotium halophilicum FRR 2471 (E and F) over a range of water activity, on malt‐extract, yeast‐extract phosphate agar (MYPiA) supplemented with diverse stressor(s) and incubated at 30°C. For X. bisporus, A. penicillioides and E. halophilicum, media were supplemented with glycerol+sucrose, glycerol+NaCl or glycerol+NaCl+sucrose (respectively) over a range of concentrations to give a range of water activities from 0.995 to 0.637 (see Table 1). The red box indicates the water‐activity window selected for an additional study carried out to assess the potency of glycerol as a determinant for the water‐activity limit for life (Experimental procedures; Stevenson et al., in press). Maximum rates of germination and germ‐tube development were determined from the curves (data not shown) and grey bars indicate standard errors.