Bacillus subtilis
From Freepedia
| Bacillus subtilis | ||||||||||||||
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| Bacillus subtilis Ehrenberg, 1835 |
Bacillus subtilis is a bacterium that is commonly found in soil, belonging to the genus Bacillus. Like other such species, it has the ability to form a tough, protective endospore, which it allows it to tolerate extreme environmental conditions. Unlike several other well-known species, B. subtilis is an obligate aerobe.
B. subtilis is not considered a human pathogen, but it can contaminate food and rarely causes food poisoning. Its spores can survive the extreme heating that is often used to cook food, and it is responsible for causing ropiness in spoiled bread. Nevertheless, a strain of B. subtilis formerly known as Bacillus natto is used in the commercial production of the Japanese delicacy natto. Other strains of B. subtilis have other commercial applications. For instance, B. subtilis strain QST 713 (marketed as QST 713 or Serenade™) has a natural fungicidal activity, and is employed as a biological control agent [1].
B. subtilis has proven highly amenable to genetic manipulation, and has therefore become widely adopted as a model organism for laboratory studies, especially of sporulation, which is a simplified example of cellular differentiation. In terms of popularity as a laboratory workhorse B. subtilis can be considered the Gram-positive equivalent of Escherichia coli, an extensively studied Gram-negative rod.
