ABSTRACT
When bacteria, such as certain species of Bacillus and Clostridium, are exposed to extreme environmental conditions, including lack of
nutrients, they are able to form spores that can survive for long
periods of time, with some reports of viable spores found that
were 25 million years old [1]. Clostridium species are gram-positive, obligatory anaerobic bacteria. For this reason, clostridia spores do
not germinate until they are in a hypoxic environment, making them
ideal vehicles for therapeutics at hypoxic tumor sites [2]; however,
due to their anaerobic nature, Clostridium species have limited uses in bioanalytical applications [3]. On the other end, Bacillus species
Figure 10.1 Schematic showing the components of a spore.
