A stochastic model of bacterial spore germination (Q790063)

A stochastic approach is used to derive a model equation capable of describing the observed sigmoid-shaped absorbance vs time curve of a sample of germinating bacterial spores. The time required by an individual spore to complete the observed change consists of an initial interval of no change (the microlag time) followed immediately by the duration of the change itself (the microgermination time). The proposed model is based on the fact that the individual spore times are distributed over a range of values. The absorbance level \((Y_ t)\) of a randomly selected spore is represented by \(Y_ t=\epsilon_{T_ 1}(t-T_ 0)\), where \(\epsilon_ t\) is the spore contribution to the absorbance at time t, \(T_ 0\) and \(T_ 1\) are non-negative and independent random variables characterizing the microlag and microgermination times, respectively. A standard procedure leads to an average single-spore germination curve which, to a different scale, describes the dynamics of the germination process in the sample.