Modelling the effect of a heat shock and germinant concentration on spore germination of a wild strain of Bacillus cereus

The effect of different concentrations of l-alanine on the germination kinetics of a strain of Bacillus cereus isolated from liquid egg after heat shock during sporulation was studied. Germination at 30 °C and was followed by spectrophotometry. The higher the concentration of l-alanine within the range 100–1 mM the faster was the germination obtained. On the other hand, the application of a heat shock had an effect on the germination producing a diminution on the germination kinetic rates. The Weibull distribution function, a model that has been used for describing inactivation kinetics Collado et al., 2003, Loss and Hotchkiss, 2004, Chen and Hoover, 2004 and Guerrero et al., 2005, was used for modelling germination experimental data. Results indicated that the Weibull distribution function model produced a good description of experimental data.