Bacillus macquariensis nsp., a Psychrotrophic Bacterium from Sub-Antarctic Soil

• Main Authors: J. Marshall, D. F. Ohye
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1965
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Macquarie Island
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.580.6761; http://mic.sgmjournals.org/content/44/1/41.full.pdf

A new species of the genus Bacillus was isolated from Macquarie Island soil. The organism is psychrotrophic, producing spores at temperatures down to and including 0". The maximum temperature for growth is 25". Apart from its temperature relations, it most closely resembles B. pulvi-faciens, but differs from that organism in its ability to produce acid from carbohydrates with ammonium salts as sole nitrogen source and in its inability to hydrolyse casein or gelatin, to grow on soybean agar or to grow in 5 yo NaC1. The name Bacillus macquariensis is proposed. Vegetative organisms stained Gram-negative a t all stages of growth. Electron micrographs revealed cell-wall structures typical of Gram-positive bacteria; on the other hand, chemical analyses demonstrated in cell-wall preparations a wide range of amino acids and relatively low amounts of amino sugars, as commonly found in Gram-negative species.