THE BACTERIAL ENDOSPORE 47 



agent, in that it would reverse the inhibition in concentrations 

 smaller than any of the other substances tested. Among the 

 amino acids, aspartic acid and asparagine are the only ones that 

 were effective. 



From the above results we were led to suspect that the 

 glyoxalic acid shunt was the one needed for intermediates for 

 the synthesis of spore protein and dipicolinic acid. By these 

 findings we were encouraged to investigate other inhibitors to 

 see if we could cast further light upon this problem and get 

 further indications as to whether or not the tricarboxylic acid 

 cycle or the glyoxalic shunt are involved. 



Before further pursuing this problem we investigated the 

 effect of metals on the inhibition with a-picolinic acid, because 

 this compound is a strong chelating agent and its effect may be 

 due to the removal of some essential metal ion. In order to 

 interpret these experiments one needs to know the composition 

 of the medium in which the spores are grown and in which the 

 a-picolinic acid is producing its effect. Therefore, I indicate at 

 this point the composition of the medium. This is shown in 

 Table IV. Table V shows the effect of added metal ions on the 



TABLE IV 



MEDIUM USED FOR GROWTH AND SPORULATION 



OF Bacillus cereus T . 



References p. 59 



