Bacillus endospores isolated from granite: close molecular relationships to globally distributed Bacillus spp. from endolithic and extreme environments.

ABSTRACT: As part of an ongoing effort to catalog spore-forming bacterial populations in environments conducive to interplanetary transfer by natural impacts or by human spaceflight activities, spores of Bacillus spp. were isolated and characterized from the interior of near-subsurface granite rock collected from the Santa Catalina Mountains, AZ. Granite was found to contain approximately 500 cultivable Bacillus spores and approximately 10(4) total cultivable bacteria per gram. Many of the Bacillus isolates produced a previously unreported diffusible blue fluorescent compound. Two strains of eight tested exhibited increased spore UV resistance relative to a standard Bacillus subtilis UV biodosimetry strain. Fifty-six isolates were identified by repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (rep-PCR) and 16S

SUBMITTER: Fajardo-Cavazos P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1449054 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature