ENZYMES DORMANT IN THE INTACT SPORE 113 



Powell, J. F. and J. R. Hunter. 1956. Adenosine deaminase and ribosidase in 

 spores of Bacillus cereus. Biochem J. (London) 62: 381-387. 



Powell, J. F. and R. E. Strange. 1956. Biochemical changes occurring during 

 sporulation in Bacillus species. Biochem. J. (London) 63: 661-668. 



Schlenk, H. and R. T. Holman. 1950. The urea complexes of unsaturated 

 fatty acids. Science 112: 19-20. 



Schlenk, H., D. M. Sand and J. A. Tillotson. 1955. Stabilization of autooxi- 

 dizable materials by means of inclusion. Jour. Am. Chem. Soc. 77: 3587- 

 3590. 



Spencer, R. E. J. and J. F. Powell. 1952. Flavine-adenine dinucleotide and 

 diaphorase in resting and germinated spores, and vegetative cells of Ba- 

 cillus subtilis and Bacillus megatherium. Biochem. J. (London) 51: 

 239-245. 



Strange, R. E. and F. A. Dark. 1956. The composition of the spore coats of 

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Discussion 



Brooks D. Church 



Activation of Glucose Oxidation in Spores of Bacillus cereus 

 var. terminalis 



Dr. Murty has discussed enzyme activation in spores of B. cereus var. 

 terminalis after treatment of the spores with heat and L-alanine. Only in 

 spores aged two years or longer was he able to activate glucose oxidation 

 with heat alone. In no instance was he able to activate the enzyme in the 

 absence of heat. 



Activation of the glucose-oxidizing enzyme in these spores (Church and 

 Halvorson, 1955, 1956) was carried out by the use of heat or with adeno- 

 sine in the absence of heat. The several types of enzyme activation studied 

 by Murty and by us, together with the effect of spore age, may be related 

 to initial steps in a common series of reactions involving glucose. I feel 

 that a discussion of spore enzyme activation in the light of our combined 

 information may be helpful toward a better understanding of the activation 

 mechanism. The following experiments are reviewed as an aid in this dis- 

 cussion. 



Under conditions of heat shock normally employed for germination 

 studies, 15 minutes at 65 °C, clean spores failed to demonstrate uptake of 

 oxygen in the presence or absence of glucose. However, w hen the heat shock- 

 ing period was extended, active endogenous respiration and exogenous glu- 

 cose oxidation were observed. The results indicated that 60 min. were re- 

 quirted for optimal activation. An analysis of the reaction showed that for 

 each mole of glucose oxidized 1.1 moles of COo were formed and 1.4 moles 

 of oxygen utilized. The rate of oxygen uptake was not increased Avhen the 



