Abstract
Bacillus cereus spores have an extremely high heat resistivity as compared to their vegetative form. The thermal behavior of the cell water was studied with special regard to these properties characteristic of the spores. The phase diagrams for both cell forms were obtained by single scannings with a differential scanning calorimeter. The intracellular water was divided into freezable and unfreezable fractions, the amount of which could be determined calorimetrically for both cell forms. The amount of freezable water was lower in the spores than in the vegetative cells. This fact seems to be important for the maintenance of the dormancy and heat resistivity of the spores. The unfreezable water content was slightly lower in the spores than in the vegetative forms.
