Minimal Nutritional Requirements of Bacillus sphaericus NCTC9602 and 26 other Strains of this Species: the Majority Grow and Sporulate with Acetate as Sole Major Source of Carbon

Abstract

Bacillus sphaericus NCTC 9602 grew and sporulated in a simple chemically defined minimal medium containing only KH,P0,/Na2HP04 buffer, pH 7-2, 15 mM-ammonium sulphate, inorganic salts and sodium acetate (as sole source of carbon); no vitamins were needed. The organisms contained the characteristic enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase) but lacked pyruvate dehydrogenase. Isocitrate dehydrogenase and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase were both present.The minimal nutritional requirements of 26 other strains of B. sphaericus were investigated. Three of these (including the type culture) grew and sporulated in the above minimal medium, and a further 13 strains grew and sporulated when only biotin and thiamin were added. Two more strains grew in the minimal medium plus these vitamins and glutamic acid. Four of the remaining strains needed several amino acids, but not acetate, and four other strains required a purine as well as amino acids.

Acetate-detoxification of wood hydrolysates with alkali tolerant Bacillus sp. as a strategy to enhance the lipid production from Rhodosporidium toruloides

“…Other Bacillus strains have also been reported to grow on sodium acetate as sole carbon source (initial pH 7-7.2 and final pH 8-8.5) (White and Lotay, 1980), but the amount reported was considerably lower (5 g/L sodium acetate) compared to our work. Sodium acetate has also been used for the cultivation of the green algae H. pluvialis at lower concentrations than reported in our work (Jeon et al, 2006;Kang et al, 2005;Orosa et al, 2001), with a concentration of acetate higher than 5 g/L causing inhibition of growth (Orosa et al, 2001).…”

“…On the other hand, acetic acid is a potential carbon source for the cultivation of some microalgae such as Haematococcus pluvialis (Kobayashi et al, 1993) and bacteria such as Bacillus sp. (White and Lotay, 1980).…”

The bacterium, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, as an insect pathogen

“…Formerly known as Bacillus sphaericus, the species was defined as having a spherical terminal spore and by its inability to ferment sugars (White and Lotay, 1980). It was reassigned to the new genus Lysinibacillus on the basis of phenotypic characteristics including the fact that members of this new genus differed from other group 2 bacilli in producing peptidoglycans containing lysine and aspartic acid (Ahmed et al, 2007).…”

Molecular Characterization of a Glucokinase with Broad Hexose Specificity from Bacillus sphaericus Strain C3-41

“…Previous research indicated that the inability of B. sphaericus to metabolize carbohydrates could be attributed to its inability to transport glucose or sucrose into the cell (24) and the absence of key enzyme activities in the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) (glucokinase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, 6-phosphofructokinase), hexose monophosphate pathway (phosphogluconate dehydratase), and Entner-Doudoroff (6-phospho-2-keto-3-deoxyglyconate aldolase) pathways (20). Recent studies revealed that B. sphaericus strain 2362 has a glucose transport system (2) and that it also has 6-phosphofructokinase activity; thus, it could use Nacetylglucosamine as a sole carbon source (3).…”