Most biocontrol agents for plant diseases have been isolated from sources such as soils and plants. As an alternative source, we examined the feces of tertiary larvae of the herbivorous rhino beetle, Allomyrina dichotoma for presence of biocontrol-active microbes. The initial screen was performed to detect antifungal activity against two common fungal plant pathogens. The strain with strongest ...

We report a previously undescribed quorum-sensing mechanism for triggering multicellularity in Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis forms communities of cells known as biofilms in response to an unknown signal. We discovered that biofilm formation is stimulated by a variety of small molecules produced by bacteria--including the B. subtilis nonribosomal peptide surfactin--that share the ability to ind...

The present study emphasizes the diversity assessment of marine Bacillus species with special reference to biosurfactant production, respective gene expression, and discrimination among Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis. Among the 200 individual species of eastern coastal plain of Tamil Nadu screened, five biosurfactant producing potential bacterial species with entirely different mo...

The Bacillus subtilis Sfp protein activates the peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) domains of surfactin synthetase by transferring the 4'-phosphopantetheinyl moiety of coenzyme A (CoA) to a serine residue conserved in all PCPs. Its wide PCP substrate spectrum renders Sfp a biotechnologically valuable enzyme for use in combinatorial non-ribosomal peptide synthesis. The structure of the Sfp-CoA compl...