Bacillus spore surface morphology was imaged with atomic force microscopy (AFM) to determine if characteristic surface features could be used to distinguish between four closely related species; Bacillus anthracis Sterne strain, Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, Bacillus cereus strain 569, and Bacillus globigii var. niger. AFM surface height images showed an irregular topography across the ...

Three species of Bacillus were evaluated as potential surrogates for Bacillus anthracis for determining the sporicidal activity of chlorination as commonly used in drinking water treatment. Spores of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis were found to be an appropriate surrogate for spores of B. anthracis for use in chlorine inactivation studies.

Neighbor-joining, maximum-parsimony, minimum-evolution, maximum-likelihood and Bayesian trees constructed based on 16S rDNA sequences of 181 type strains of Bacillus species and related taxa manifested nine phylogenetic groups. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Bacillus was not a monophyletic group. B. subtilis was in Group 1. Group 4, 6 and 8 respectively consisted of thermophiles, halophi...

During the last 10 years the subject of bacterial spore germination has been intensively investigated. In most of these studies it has been found that bacterial spores are capable of germination under conditions which do not permit the germinated form to survive (Schmidt, 1955; Stedman, 1956). Hills (1949) pointed out that a distinction must be drawn between the requirements for germination and...

Thirty-nine Bacillus strains obtained from a variety of environmental and food sources were screened by PCR for the presence of five gene targets (hblC, hblD, hblA, nheA, and nheB) in two enterotoxin operons (HBL and NHE) traditionally harbored by Bacillus cereus. Seven isolates exhibited a positive signal for at least three of the five possible targets, including Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, B....

Through the researches of Wright and Douglas 1 it has been established tha t the phagocytic effect of human leucocytes upon certain bacteria is essentially dependent upon the presence in the blood plasma and serum of substances which they have termed opsonins. They could demonstrate tha t these substances per se are to a certain extent at least thermolabile, being part ly destroyed by heating t...

As part of an ongoing effort to catalog spore-forming bacterial populations in environments conducive to interplanetary transfer by natural impacts or by human spaceflight activities, spores of Bacillus spp. were isolated and characterized from the interior of near-subsurface granite rock collected from the Santa Catalina Mountains, AZ. Granite was found to contain approximately 500 cultivable ...

Several products of industrial interest are produced by Bacillus, including enzymes, antibiotics, amino acids, insecticides, biosurfactants and bacteriocins. This study aimed to investigate the potential of two bacterial isolates (P5 and C3) from puba, a regional fermentation product from cassava, to produce multiple substances with antimicrobial and surface active properties. Phylogenetic anal...

Six antimicrobial-producing seaweed-derived Bacillus strains were evaluated in vitro as animal probiotics, in comparison to two Bacillus from an EU-authorized animal probiotic product. Antimicrobial activity was demonstrated on solid media against porcine Salmonella and E. coli. The marine isolates were most active against the latter, had better activity than the commercial probiotics and Bacil...

Four novel bacterial strains were isolated from cryogenic tubes used to collect air samples at altitudes of 24, 28 and 41 km. The four strains, 24K(T), 28K(T), 41KF2a(T) and 41KF2b(T), were identified as members of the genus Bacillus. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that three of the strains, 24K(T), 28K(T) and 41KF2a(T), are very similar to one another (>98 % s...