ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION 213 



a term that does not describe something that really exists. It can 

 be found in the literature that the spore's resistance is increased 

 because the water in the spore is bound. That is not so. Water in 

 the spores is perfectly free. As I previously pointed out, one can 

 evaporate almost all of the water of the spores and the vapour 

 pressure will remain that of pure water. 



Lees: I might perhaps add that certain species of insects are 

 often found to be more cold-resistant in the dormant condition 

 than when actively growing and developing. However, as 

 R. W. Salt has shown, this may merely be a consequence of the 

 presence of 'foreign' particles in the gut of the feeding insect. 

 The physiological mechanisms responsible for dormancy and 

 cold-hardiness may well be entirely different. We tend to think 

 of insect diapause primarily as a growth phenomenon. 



Mandelbaum : We should also note that in trees frost- 

 resistance and dormancy can be induced quite separately. 



Moderator: Let us now ask the protozoologists and myco- 

 logists whether they think that resistance and metabolic dor- 

 mancy are separable? 



Wahl: Yes, indeed. In fungi they are entirely separable. 



Moderator: We have decided, I think, that hypometabohc 

 dormancy and enhanced resistance are separable phenomena 

 though in some systems they are correlated. 



Mayer: The correlation might arise as follows: a dormant 

 organism has a lower requirement for energy-releasing pro- 

 cesses. Therefore it is less affected by external factors. In the 

 growing organism, on the other hand, there is a much higher 

 requirement for energy-releasing processes. Hence external 

 factors affect a growing cell more readily. 



(Ill) Metabolism in Cryptobiosis 



Moderator: This brings us now to an important further 

 question — whether the hypometabohc state is characterised by 

 a quahtative change from normal in the metabolic pathways. 



Avi-Dor: I would like to call vour attention to the fact that 



