SUGARS MEDIATED GERMINATION IN SPORES OF Bacillus megaterium

NIMISHA TEHRI¹*, NARESH KUMAR², AVINASH YADAV³, H.V. RAGHU⁴, NAMITA ASHISH SINGH^5
1Microbial Biosensors and Food Safety Laboratory, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India
²Microbial Biosensors and Food Safety Laboratory, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India
³Microbial Biosensors and Food Safety Laboratory, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India
⁴Microbial Biosensors and Food Safety Laboratory, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India
⁵Microbial Biosensors and Food Safety Laboratory, Dairy Microbiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India
* Corresponding Author : nimmi.tehri15@gmail.com

Received : 10-03-2018     Accepted : 14-03-2018     Published : 30-03-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 3       Pages : 1058 - 1061
Int J Microbiol Res 10.3 (2018):1058-1061
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.9735/0975-5276.10.3.1058-1061

Keywords : spore, germinant, germination, sugars, refractility
Academic Editor : Dr Amit Vashishth, Dr Pawan Verma
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Author thankful to Niche Area of Excellence (NAE) for supporting this research work. Author thankful to The Director, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001, Haryana, India.
Author Contribution : All author equally contributed

A total of eleven sugars were evaluated for their potential to endow germination in spores of Bacillus megaterium MTCC 2949. Germination of spores in response to different sugars was studied by two well-known germination assays namely reduction in O.D. (600nm) and refractility examination. As a result, reduction in O.D. (600 nm) varied from ~3.90 to 42.01% depending upon type and concentration of different sugars. Spores were found germinated well with a reduction in absorbance of 30% or more with cellobiose, dextrose, 2-deoxy-D-glucose, glucosamine, maltose, methyl-α-D- glucoside, sorbose, starch and xylose. On the other hand, germination was found at a poor or negligible rate (i.e., < 6% reduction of absorbance) with D-galactose and rhamnose. The finding of this assay was further validated by refractility study using phase contrast microscopy. The outcome of presented work reveals that all sugars are not necessarily capable of inducing germination in bacterial spores and hence induction of germination is linked with the requirement of specific sugars.

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