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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., May 1996, 1699-1704, Vol 62, No. 5
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology

Comparison of Quasielastic Light Scattering and Laser Diffractometry as Nondestructive Probes into the Structure of Bacillus sphaericus Spores Produced at Different Temperatures

AD Molina-Garcia, LA de Pieri, I Ludlow, WM Waites, JG de la Torre and SE Harding
Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, and Division of Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB, United Kingdom, and Departamento de Quimica Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Murcia, Espinardo, 30080 Murcia, Spain

Quasielastic light scattering (QLS) and laser diffractometry (LD) are relatively novel nondestructive procedures for estimating the sizes of bacterial spores in suspension. This study for the first time directly compared the two with a destructive procedure, namely, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), for quasispherical spores of Bacillus sphaericus. Because of the different physical aspect measured, the sizes derived by QLS and LD are, as could be expected for spores with an exosporium, significantly different. The larger estimates obtained by QLS (1.70, 1.58, and 1.14 (mu)m for spores produced at 15(deg)C [BS15], 20(deg)C [BS20], and 30(deg)C [BS30], respectively) than by LD (0.56 [BS15], 0.58 [BS20], and 0.52 [BS30] (mu)m) and SEM (0.64 [BS15], 0.58 [BS20], and 0.70 [BS30] (mu)m) are explained in terms of the detection by QLS, LD, and SEM of different spore layers and the degree of nonsphericity of the latter.