Reinvestigations of the Relationship Between Sporulation, Heat Resistance and Some Biochemical Properties in Strains of Clostridium Perfringens

Abstract

SUMMARY Isolates of Clostridium perfringens obtained from soil samples heated at 100°C and from samples heated at less than 100°C exhibited markedly different fermentation properties in tests with inositol, salicin, cellobiose, arbutin and aesculin. None of the C. perfringens isolates obtained from samples heated at 100°C for various lengths of time could ferment inositol, whereas all of the isolates obtained from unheated samples could ferment this sugar. The longer the preheating period at 100°C, the greater the number of aberrant isolates that attacked salicin, cellobiose, aesculin and arbutin, and the weaker were the sporulating abilities of these isolates. Most of the “heat-resistant” strains with attenuated sporulating abilities, however, could sporulate well when raffinose or melibiose was the only carbohydrate present in a test medium.