SPORE GERMINATION OF B. Jicheuifonnis 69 



reaction in germination other than the primary reaction. 



The following experiment was carried out in order to learn 

 whether octyl alcohol, 0.01 M acts on the 'trigger reaction' 

 itself in addition to its known action on subsequent metabolic 

 steps. Spores exposed to L-alanine for 10 min at 37", with and 

 without the inhibitor, were washed 5 times in the cold, in order 

 to remove both the alanine and the inhibitor. After washing, 

 the spores were resuspended, incubated and the decrease in 

 optical density measured. Those exposed to alanine alone 

 germinated readily after resuspension and incubation, while 

 those preincubated in L-alanine and octyl alcohol did not 

 germinate (Spore counts showed that the octyl alcohol did not 

 kill any of the spores). This seems to indicate that octyl alcohol 

 is inhibitory both at the 'trigger reaction' and at subsequent 

 metaboHc steps. Octyl alcohol is known to inhibit L-amino- 

 oxidases; therefore the above observation supports the idea that 

 an L-amino-oxidase might be concerned in the triggering of 

 germination. In a similar experiment, ethyl pyruvate has been 

 shown to inhibit L-alanine activation during preincubation at 

 37° for 10 min. This appears to confirm the hypothesis that 

 pyruvate metabolism is an integral part of the primary event 

 leading towards germination. 



It should be noted that temperature is not the only device by 

 which the 'trigger reaction' can be separated from subsequent 

 metabolic steps in this strain. Another means has been provided 

 by our finding that whereas L-alanine fails to activate spores at 

 pH below 6.5 the spores are able to germinate in the range 

 pH 5.0 to 6.5 provided that they have been triggered previously 

 by L-alanine at the higher pH. 



I would like finally to raise a point of nomenclature. In this 

 paper several designations have been applied to the process of 

 initiation of germination, namely 'trigger reaction', 'first step', 

 'prime event', 'alanine activation', and others. Might it not be 

 useful to have one generally agreed designation for this process? 



In summing up, we are able to say that a prime event in the 

 germination reaction has been resolved by our experiment from 



References p. 70 



