Bacillus subtilisas a Model for Bacterial Systems Biology

Abstract

Bacillus subtilis has been the subject of intense study for nearly six decades. Initially, the key drivers were: (i) the need of the food industry for a nonpathogenic model bacterium to study the characteristics of endospores, and (ii) the observation, in 1959, that B. subtilis strain 168 could be genetically manipulated by transformation. In the intervening period, B. subtilis 168 has become second only to Escherichia coli K‐12 in terms of the detail with which aspects of its genetic, biochemistry and physiology is understood. For the foreseeable future, B. subtilis represents an eminently tractable model in which to integrate knowledge gained from the reductionist approach to biology towards an understanding of how this bacterium functions as a unitary system. This will require the application of various ‘omics’ (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics), the increased application of high‐throughput technologies and system modelling. The ultimate aim of an in silico model of B. subtilis is that it can accurately mimic or predict its behaviour in the environment.

Short Wave Ultraviolet Light (UV-C) Effectiveness in the Inactivation of Bacterial Spores Inoculated in Turbid Suspensions and in Cloudy Apple Juice

“…The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of a concentric-ring thin-film UV-C reactor in inactivating bacterial spores inoculated in suspensions of different turbidity values as the main interference in order to know the degree in which those values can oppose to the effectiveness of UV-C to inactivate bacterial spores. For that purpose spores of Bacillus subtilis and of A. acidoterrestris were chosen because the first one has been commonly used as a model microorganism for the study of the characteristics of endospores [14], and the second one for being a target microorganism in the fruit juice industry due to their resistance to many types of stresses and for growing at low pH values [7]. The inactivation of A. acidoterrestris spores in cloudy apple juice with ascorbic acid, a real food matrix of high turbidity and absorption coefficient at 254 nm, was studied by applying UV-C in a single pass or in recirculation.…”

Synergistic Relationship Between Copper and Ribosome-Targeting Antibiotics in Close Relatives of B. subtilis ssp. spizizenii

“…spizizenii. B. subtilis is an excellent representative species for gram-positive bacteria, and has been a go-to study organism for many evolutionary and microbiological studies for more than six decades (Harwood, 2007). Originally, the key factors that drove the scientific community to use B. subtilis as a model system was the fact that they could be used by researchers in the food community as a nonpathogenic bacterium to study the characteristic features of endospores (Harwood, 2007).…”

“…B. subtilis is an excellent representative species for gram-positive bacteria, and has been a go-to study organism for many evolutionary and microbiological studies for more than six decades (Harwood, 2007). Originally, the key factors that drove the scientific community to use B. subtilis as a model system was the fact that they could be used by researchers in the food community as a nonpathogenic bacterium to study the characteristic features of endospores (Harwood, 2007). Eventually, it became apparent that the wild-type strain, dubbed 168, could be genetically manipulated through transformation experiments, which gave B. subtilis additional value to the scientific community (Harwood, 2007;Anagnostopoulos and Spizizen, 1961).…”

“…Originally, the key factors that drove the scientific community to use B. subtilis as a model system was the fact that they could be used by researchers in the food community as a nonpathogenic bacterium to study the characteristic features of endospores (Harwood, 2007). Eventually, it became apparent that the wild-type strain, dubbed 168, could be genetically manipulated through transformation experiments, which gave B. subtilis additional value to the scientific community (Harwood, 2007;Anagnostopoulos and Spizizen, 1961). Between the 1960s and today, our genetic, biochemical, and physiological understanding of B.…”

“…subtilis is only slightly less robust than that of E. coli (Harwood, 2007). Beginning over sixty years ago with now-rudimentary transformation studies, B. subtilis still finds use in modern laboratories under various -omics experiments (including, but not limited to, genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, etc.…”