Pj. Coote et al., THE USE OF CONFOCAL SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPY (CSLM) TO STUDY THE GERMINATION OF INDIVIDUAL SPORES OF BACILLUS-CEREUS, Journal of microbiological methods, 21(2), 1995, pp. 193-208
Confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) has been used to study the g
ermination of Bacillus cereus spores allowing generation of accurate q
uantitative data on loss of refractility of individual, germinating sp
ores in a population. The technique also allowed the simultaneous stud
y of changes in spore permeability to ethidium bromide by fluorescence
microscopy. Statistical analyses were performed on the data obtained
and the distributions of various germination parameters within the pop
ulation studied. All the parameters studied were characterised by posi
tively 'skewed' distributions indicating the high level of biovariabil
ity present in populations of bacterial spores. The lag time before a
spore initiated germination was independent from the subsequent time t
o lose refractility, or germinate. The method described in this work,
for the first time, allows changes in permeability during germination
to be studied using the influx of a compound that is excluded from dor
mant spores (ethidium bromide). It is hoped that this will form the ba
sis of a useful system for studying the kinetics and sequence of spore
germination when combined with other permeability probes.