Permeability of bacterial spores. IV. Water content, uptake, and distribution

Abstract

Black, S. H. (The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Philipp Gerhardt. Permeability of bacterial spores. IV. Water content, uptake, and distribution. J. Bacteriol. 83:960-967. 1962.-Dormant and germinated spores of Bacillus cereus strain terminalis were examined for water properties. Respectively, they exhibited a mean density of 1.28 and 1.11 g/ml, a water content of 64.8 and 73.0%, and a total water uptake of 66.6 and 75.6%, based on spore weight, or 86.0 and 83.9%, based on spore volume. The results confirmed a previous report that internal and external water are in virtually complete equilibrium, but refuted a prevailing hypothesis that heat resistance is attributable to a dry core. A model of spore ultrastructure that evolved from the cumulative results pictures a moist, dense, heteroporous core. A new hypothesis is formulated as an explanation for thermostability in spores and possibly in other instances; it postulates the occurrence of an insolubly gelled core with cross-linking between macromolecules through stable but reversible bonds so as to form a high-polymer matrix with entrapped free water.