Figure 1

Germination of B. licheniformis with L-alanine. Germination is followed as a change in initial absorbance at 600 nm (A₆₀₀) of phase bright spores in K-phosphate buffer pH 7.2 at 30 °C after addition of 100 mM L-alanine. Complete germination (>99% phase dark spores as observed by phase contrast microscopy) was observed at ~40% of initial A₆₀₀. The results shown are representative of experiments performed in duplicate on two individual spore batches repeated at least twice.