Requirement for and sensitivity to lysozyme by Clostridium perfringens spores heated at ultrahigh temperatures

Abstract

The requirement of ultrahigh temperature (UHT)-treated Clostridium perfringens spores for lysozyme and the sensitivity of heated and unheated spores to lysozyme were studied. The UHT-treated spores requiring lysozyme for germination and colony formation originated from only a small portion of the non-UHT-treated spore population. This raised a question of whether the requirement for lysozyme was natural to the spores or was induced by the UHT treatments. However, these spores did not require lysozyme for germination before UHT treatment, which confirmed that the requirement for lysozyme had been induced by the UHT treatment. Only 1 to 2% of the spores were naturally sensitive to lysozyme; therefore, the mere addition of lysozyme to the plating medium did not permit the enumeration of all survivors. Treatment of UHT-treated spores with ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) sensitized the spores to lysozyme and increased by 10- to 100-fold the number of survivors that were detected on a medium containing lysozyme. Under the heating conditions used, spores that were naturally sensitive to lysozyme and spores that required EDTA treatment were equally heat resistant.