Bacillus

Bacillus anthracis

Bacilli ( bacillus from the Latin for " chopsticks " ) are a genus of rod-shaped, well-known in most actively moving bacteria with more than 200 species. They are gram- positive.

Colloquially, various disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria, amoeba and viruses are called bacillus or bacillus. However, the organisms thus designated not form a biologically - systematic group ( taxon ) and the vast majority of them do not belong to the genus Bacillus.

Characteristic of the genus Bacillus is the formation of endospores and (in contrast to the genus Clostridium ) an aerobic or facultative aerobic growth. Some species can be pathogenic (disease- causing).

Properties

They reproduce only under aerobic conditions, even on a simple basic culture media. All species produce lecithinase and catalase, while most species differ in carbohydrate utilization and capacity for active movement. For the decomposition of tissues they have a broad spectrum of species-specific enzymes (eg: collagenases, proteases). Some members of the genus produce toxins (eg: hemolysins ).

The GC content of their DNA is very uneven. He is 32-69 %.

As a special feature in their membranes contain many species of the genus Bacillus to a high predominant proportion of branched chain fatty acids.

Forms of cells with spores

1 Spore centrally 2 Spore terminal with inclusion bodies (protein) Distended third terminal spore, bacteria club shaped 4 Spore central bacterium distended fusiform ( " Clostridium - form " ) 5 Spore terminal, round = Plectridium 6 Spore laterally, Bacterium distended spindle-shaped.

Types (selection)

• Bacillus alvei Cheshire and Cheyne 1885 is the causative agent of European foulbrood in honey bees.

• Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Fukumoto 1943. Rhizobacterium, which stimulates plant growth and secondary metabolites produced suppress plant pathogens.

• Bacillus anthracis Cohn 1872. Causative agent of anthrax is unbegeißelt and surrounded by a Glutaminsäurekapsel

• Bacillus atrophaeus Nakamura 1989. Uses for control of sterilization processes.

• Bacillus cereus Frankland & Frankland 1887. Widespread soil germ, in various foods (especially rice) frequently detectable. The two known enterotoxins can lead to food poisoning. A variant is B. cereus var mycoides, which has a mushroom- like growth on the soil surface. There are " left " and " right-handed " tribes.

• Bacillus circulans Jordan 1890 is circular apart monitored colonies ( hence its name ), air sampling

• Bacillus coagulans Hammer 1915

• Bacillus larvae White 1906 - see also American foulbrood ( Paenibacillus larvae larvae ) in honey bees

• Bacillus laterosporus Laubach 1916

• Bacillus megaterium de Bary 1884 counts with the cell dimensions to 2 × 5 microns to the giants among the eubacteria

• Bacillus natto Ehrenberg 1835

• Bacillus polymyxa ( Prazmowski 1880) Macé 1889 (formerly as asterosporus ) gets its name from the strong slime formation. The spores are in the cross-sectional star-shaped

• Bacillus pumilus Meyer & Gottheil 1901

• Bacillus sphaericus Meyer and envy 1904 is cow dung - like colonies

• Bacillus sporothermodurans Pettersson et al. 1996

• Bacillus stearothermophilus Donk 1920, due to its growth optimum at 50 - 65 ° C an extremely thermophilic organism. Below 30 ° C no growth is present. It serves as test germ of sterilization processes.

• Bacillus subtilis ( Ehrenberg 1835) Cohn 1872. A ACCUMULATIVE in Heuaufgüssen Bacillus, also called hay bacillus. Individual strains are Antibiotikabildner ( bacitracin ).

• Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner 1915 is a Insektenpathogen.

• Bacillus pseudoanthracis