A Note on the Effect of Hydrogen Chloride on the Morphology of Bacillus subtilis Spores

Gaseous hydrogen chloride, in the presence of a minute amount of water vapour, rapidly inactivated bacterial spores. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the treatment caused spores of Bacillus subtilis to collapse. Modern theories of spore structure and resistance suggest that it is likely that hydrogen chloride inactivates and causes collapse of spores by breaking disulphide bonds in coat protein and neutralizing, by protonation, peptidoglycan carboxyl groups in the underlying cortex.