National Bank for Industrial Microorganisms and Cell Cultures
Abstract
Sequencing of the 16S rDNA hypervariant region was applied to determine
the presence and composition of Bacillus species in 40 soil samples
randomly collected from different habitats in El-Omayed biosphere
reserve, Egypt. Although purified cultures showed 18 different
phenotypes that were morphologically distinct on a sporulation medium
plate, only 4 different nucleotide sequences designated Seq A, B, C and
D were revealed. Computational analysis of DNA sequence data suggested
that 17 of these isolates are closely related members of the Bacillus
cereus/thuringiensis group (Seq B, C and D) and one isolate is
belonging to the Bacillus subtilis group (Seq A). Further phenotypic
investigations confirmed the diversity of the 17 novel Bacillus
cereus/thuringiensis isolates and indicated that the new Bacillus
subtilis group isolate is a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain. A simple
phenotypic discrimination key that can be applied for distinguishing
between such closely related Bacillus cereus/thuringiensis members is
presented