''Bacillus safensis'' is a

Gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. Gram-positive bacte ...

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

-forming, and

rod Rod, Ror, Ród, Rőd, Rød, Röd, ROD, or R.O.D. may refer to: Devices * Birch rod, made out of twigs from birch or other trees for corporal punishment * Ceremonial rod, used to indicate a position of authority * Connecting rod, main, coupling, ...

bacterium, originally isolated from a

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. ''B. safensis'' could have possibly been transported to the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

on spacecraft

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * 3 ...

and

Spirit Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

in 2004. There are several known strains of this bacterium, all of which belong to the

Bacillota The Bacillota (synonym Firmicutes) are a phylum of bacteria, most of which have gram-positive cell wall structure. The renaming of phyla such as Firmicutes in 2021 remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earl ...

phylum of

Bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. This bacterium also belongs to the large, pervasive genus ''

Bacillus ''Bacillus'' (Latin "stick") is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum ''Bacillota'', with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural ''Bacilli ...

''. ''B. safensis'' is an

aerobic Aerobic means "requiring air," in which "air" usually means oxygen. Aerobic may also refer to * Aerobic exercise, prolonged exercise of moderate intensity * Aerobics, a form of aerobic exercise * Aerobic respiration, the aerobic process of cellu ...

chemoheterotroph A Chemotroph is an organism that obtains energy by the oxidation of electron donors in their environments. These molecules can be organic molecule, organic (chemoorganotrophs) or inorganic compound, inorganic (chemolithotrophs). The chemotroph de ...

and is highly resistant to

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

and

UV radiation Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

. ''B. safensis'' affects plant growth, since it is a powerful plant

hormone A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required ...

producer, and it also acts as a plant growth-promoting

rhizobacteria Rhizobacteria are root-associated bacteria that can have a detrimental (parasitic varieties), neutral or beneficial effect on plant growth. The name comes from the Greek ''rhiza'', meaning root. The term usually refers to bacteria that form symbio ...

, enhancing plant growth after root colonization. Strain ''B. safensis'' JPL-MERTA-8-2 is (so far) the only bacterial strain shown to grow noticeably faster in micro-gravity environments than on the Earth surface.

Discovery and importance

Thirteen strains of the novel bacterium ''Bacillus safensis'' were first isolated from spacecraft surfaces and assembly-facility surfaces at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

in Florida as well as the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

in California. The bacterium gets its name from the JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility (SAF). Researchers used customary swabbing techniques to detect and collect the bacteria from

cleanroom A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space, which maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientif ...

s where the spacecraft were put together in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The bacterium was accidentally brought to Mars during space missions due to contamination of clean rooms. Contamination of clean rooms during space travel is an area of concern for

planetary protection Planetary protection is a guiding principle in the design of an interplanetary mission, aiming to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth in the case of sample-return missions. Planetary protection refle ...

as it can threaten microbial experimentation and give false positives of other microbial life forms on other planets. V.V. Kothari and his colleagues from

Saurashtra University Saurashtra University is a university in Gujarat state in India. This university was established on 23 May 1967, in Rajkot city, and the administrative headquarters are at Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, first isolated another strain, ''B. safensis'' VK. Strain VK was collected from ''Cuminum cyminum'', a

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

area of Gujarat, India. Specifically, the bacteria were collected from the

rhizosphere The rhizosphere is the narrow region of soil or substrate that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms known as the root microbiome. Soil pores in the rhizosphere can contain many bacteria and other microor ...

of the cumin plant. Ram S. Singh and colleagues discovered one of the strains, AS-08, in

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

samples of root tubers of

asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified in ...

plants in a botanical garden at

Punjabi University Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after Hebrew University of Israel. ...

in India. ''B. safensis'' AS-08 was found to have inulase activity, which is used for the production of

fructooligosaccharide Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) also sometimes called oligofructose or oligofructan, are oligosaccharide fructans, used as an alternative sweetener. FOS exhibits sweetness levels between 30 and 50 percent of sugar in commercially prepared syrups. It o ...

s and

high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...

. Fructooligosaccharides are used as artificial sweeteners and can be found in many commercial food products. Corn syrup is also found in many processed foods. Davender Kumar and colleagues from

Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (KUK) is a university established on 11January 1956 in Kurukshetra, in the Indian state of Haryana, from the capital, Delhi. It is a member of Association of Commonwealth Universities. History The univer ...

in India isolated strain DVL-43 from soil samples. This strain was found to possess

lipase Lipase ( ) is a family of enzymes that catalyzes the hydrolysis of fats. Some lipases display broad substrate scope including esters of cholesterol, phospholipids, and of lipid-soluble vitamins and sphingomyelinases; however, these are usually tr ...

, which is an important enzyme for fat digestion. Lipases are a class of chemicals that are abundant in nature amongst plants, animals and microorganisms that are widely used in industry for production of food, paper products, detergents and

biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...

fuel. P. Ravikumar of the Government Arts College at

Bharathiar University Bharathiar University is a Public university, public State university (India), state university in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Named after Tamil people, Tamil poet Subramania Bharati, the university was established in February 1982 under th ...

in India isolated strain PR-2 from explosive-laden soil samples. This strain was identified by its 16S rDNA sequence by Sanger dideoxy sequencing method and deposited in the

GenBank The GenBank sequence database is an open access, annotated collection of all publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. It is produced and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI; a part ...

in Maryland, U.S. It carries the accession number KP261381 with 885

base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

s of linear DNA and the base count 175 ''a'' 295 ''c'' 199 ''g'' 216 ''t''.

Physical characteristics and metabolism

''Bacillus safensis'' is a Gram-positive, spore-forming rod bacterium. ''B. safensis'' is also an aerobic chemoheterotroph. Cell size ranges from 0.5 to 0.7 μm in diameter and 1.0–1.2 μm in length. This species is

motile Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy. Definitions Motility, the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy, can be contrasted with sessility, the state of organisms th ...

, and use

polar Polar may refer to: Geography Polar may refer to: * Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates * Polar climate, the c ...

flagella A flagellum (; ) is a hairlike appendage that protrudes from certain plant and animal sperm cells, and from a wide range of microorganisms to provide motility. Many protists with flagella are termed as flagellates. A microorganism may have f ...

for locomotion. Cells are considered

mesophilic A mesophile is an organism that grows best in moderate temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, with an optimum growth range from . The optimum growth temperature for these organisms is 37°C. The term is mainly applied to microorganisms. Organi ...

, as they can grow in

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

s of . ''B. safensis'' FO-036b has an optimal temperature range of , and cannot grow at . ''B. safensis'' FO-036b prefers 0–10% salt, and a pH of 5.6. This strain was also found to produce spores that are resistant to

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3%� ...

and UV radiation. Strain VK of ''B. safensis'' is a salt-tolerant

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

, and can grow beyond the 0–10% salt range of the general microbial species. This strain can grow in 14%

NaCl Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g ...

, with a pH ranging from 4 to 8. Strain VK also contains

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s that encode for 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase enzyme. This enzyme is able to generate 2-oxobutanoate and

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

() by cleaving the precursor of plant hormone,

ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds). Ethylene i ...

1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate. This enables the plant to tolerate salt, heavy metals, and

polyaromatic hydrocarbons A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. P ...

. Because of these features, ''B. safensis'' VK is a powerful plant hormone producer.

Genomics

The genome of ''Bacillus safensis'' strain FO-036b shows a

GC-content In molecular biology and genetics, GC-content (or guanine-cytosine content) is the percentage of nitrogenous bases in a DNA or RNA molecule that are either guanine (G) or cytosine (C). This measure indicates the proportion of G and C bases out o ...

of 41.0-41.4 mol%. The ''B. safensis'' VK genomic DNA was obtained from a 24-hr-old

nutrient broth Nutrient agar is a general purpose liquid medium supporting growth of a wide range of non-fastidious organisms. It typically contains ( mass/volume): * 0.5% peptone - this provides organic nitrogen * 0.3% beef extract/yeast extract - the wate ...

culture. Isolation of this strain was performed using a GenElute commercial DNA isolation kit, and whole-genome

shotgun sequencing In genetics, shotgun sequencing is a method used for sequencing random DNA strands. It is named by analogy with the rapidly expanding, quasi-random shot grouping of a shotgun. The Sanger sequencing#Method, chain-termination method of DNA sequencin ...

was carried out. Thirty-nine

contig A contig (from ''contiguous'') is a set of overlapping DNA segments that together represent a consensus region of DNA.Gregory, S. ''Contig Assembly''. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2005. In bottom-up sequencing projects, a contig refers to ov ...

s, overlapping DNA fragments, greater in size than 200 base pairs were observed in strain VK. This strain displays a GC-content of 46.1% in a circular

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

of 3.68 Mbp. 3,928 protein-coding sequences were identified, and 1,822 protein-coding sequences were appointed to one of the 457 RAST subsystems. RAST, Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology, is a server that generates bacterial and archaeal

genome annotation DNA annotation or genome annotation is the process of identifying the locations of genes and all of the coding regions in a genome and determining what those genes do. An annotation (irrespective of the context) is a note added by way of explanati ...

s. The genome also displays 73

tRNA Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes), that serves as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino ac ...

genes. The ''B. safensis'' VK genome sequence can be found in

under the accession number AUPF00000000. Another strain, DVL-43, can also be found in GenBank under the accession number KC156603, and strain PR-2 can be found under accession number KP261381. A detailed Whole Genome Phylogenetic Analysis of the genomes of ''B. safensis'', ''B. pumilus'' and other Bacillota species, showed them to be separated into three distinct clusters. One of the large sub clusters includes not only strains classified/identified (in literature) as belonging to ''B. safensis'' but also some ''B. pumilus'' strains, thus suggesting how phylogenetic profiling may enable re-examining the strain designations.

Strains

Listed below are currently identified ''Bacillus safensis'' strains, including where they were discovered, and the year discovered (if available). * ''Bacillus safensis'' subsp. ''safensis'' FO-36B – clean room – California (1999) * ''Bacillus safensis'' NH21E_2 – sediment – South China Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' B204-B1-5 – sediment – South China Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' EMJ-O3-B1-22 – sediment – South China Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' CJWT7 – sediment – South China Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' SLN29 – sediment – South China Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' BMO4-13 – surface water – Pacific Ocean * ''Bacillus safensis'' D21 – sediment – Arctic Ocean * ''Bacillus safensis'' HYg-9 – intestinal tract contents of fish – Xiamen Island * ''Bacillus safensis'' NP-4 – surface water – Arctic Ocean * ''Bacillus safensis'' 15-BO4 10-15-3 – Sediment – Bering Sea * ''Bacillus safensis'' DW3-7 – aquaculture water – shrimp farm * ''Bacillus safensis'' FO-33 – clean room – California (1999) * ''Bacillus safensis'' SAFN-001 – entrance floor of Jet Propulsion Lab (2001) * ''Bacillus safensis'' SAFN-027 – ante room of Jet Propulsion Lab (2001) * ''Bacillus safensis'' SAFN-036 – clean room of Jet Propulsion Lab (2001) * ''Bacillus safensis'' SAFN-037 – clean room floor of JPL (2001) * ''Bacillus safensis'' KL-052 – clean room cabinet top of JPL (2001) * ''Bacillus safensis'' 51-3C – Mars Odyssey spacecraft surface (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' 81-4C – Mars Odyssey assembly facility floor (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' A2-2C – Mars Odyssey assembly facility floor (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' 84-1C – Mars Odyssey assembly facility floor (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' 84-3C – Mars Odyssey assembly facility floor (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' 84-4C – Mars Odyssey assembly facility floor (2002) * ''Bacillus safensis'' JPL-MERTA-8-2 - Mars Exploration Rover clean room of JPL (2004) * ''Bacillus safensis'' DVL-43 – India * ''Bacillus safensis'' VK – Gujarat, India * ''Bacillus safensis'' AS08 – botanical garden - Punjabi University, India * ''Bacillus safensis'' PR-2 – explosive laden soil - Tamil Nadu, India (2015) * ''Bacillus safensis'' subsp. ''safensis'' HCM-06 – rhizospheric soil – India(2022) * ''Bacillus safensis'' BB2 – bee bread (fermented

bee pollen Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive. It consists of simple sugars, protein, minerals and vitamins, ...

) - Malaysia (2018) * ''Bacillus safensis'' MAE 17 - soil - Egypt (2019) * ''Bacillus safensis'' subsp. ''osmophilus'' BC09 - condensed milk - Spain (2019)

Differentiation between related species

Several isolates of the genus ''Bacillus'' are nearly identical to ''

Bacillus pumilus ''Bacillus pumilus'' is a Gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming bacillus commonly found in soil. ''Bacillus pumilus'' spores—with the exception of mutant strain ATCC 7061—generally show high resistance to environmental stresses, including UV ...

''. The group of isolates related to ''B. pumilus'' contains five related species: ''B. pumilus'', ''B. safensis'', ''B. stratosphericus'', ''B. altitudinis'', and ''B. aerophilus''. These species are difficult to distinguish due to their 99.5% similarity in their

16S rRNA 16S rRNA may refer to: * 16S ribosomal RNA 16 S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The g ...

gene sequence. Recently, scientists have discovered an alternate way to differentiate between these closely related species, especially ''B. pumilus'' and ''B. safensis''.

DNA gyrase DNA gyrase, or simply gyrase, is an enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrat ...

is an important

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

that introduces a negative

supercoil DNA supercoiling refers to the amount of twist in a particular DNA strand, which determines the amount of strain on it. A given strand may be "positively supercoiled" or "negatively supercoiled" (more or less tightly wound). The amount of a st ...

to the DNA and is responsible for the biological processes in

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...

and

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

. DNA gyrase is made of two subunits, A and B. These subunits are denoted as gyrA and gyrB. The gyrB gene, subunit B protein, is a

type II topoisomerase Type II topoisomerases are topoisomerases that cut both strands of the DNA helix simultaneously in order to manage DNA tangles and supercoils. They use the hydrolysis of ATP, unlike Type I topoisomerase. In this process, these enzymes change th ...

that is essential for DNA replication. This gene is conserved among bacterial species. The rate of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

at the molecular level deduced from gyrB-related gene sequences can be determined at a more accelerated rate compared to the 16S rRNA gene sequences. These subunits have provided a way to phylogenetically distinguish between the diversity of species related to ''B. pumilus'', which includes ''B. safensis''. Strain ''B. safensis'' DSM19292 shares 90.2% gyrA sequence similarity with ''B. pumilus'' strain . In 1952, a strain of ''B. pumilus'' was discovered in the

DSMZ The Leibniz Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH (German: ''Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH''), located in Braunschweig, is a research infrastructure in th ...

culture and labeled as strain . The strain was identified before ''B. safensis'' was discovered. In 2012, a gyrA sequence similarity was tested between the ''B. pumilus'' strain and ''B. pumilus'' strain , as well as against ''B. safensis'' strain (type strain FO-36b). Strain showed a 90.4% and 98% sequence similarity with ''B. pumilus'' strain and ''B. safensis'' strain , respectively. These results indicated that may in fact be a ''B. safensis'' strain, instead of a ''B. pumilus'' strain. These results supported that gyrA sequences could be used to differentiate between closely related bacteria.

References

External links

''B. safensis'' type strain
at Bac''Dive''
''B. safensis'' type strain
at NamesforLife.com {{Taxonbar, from=Q4838980 safensis Extremophiles Bacteria described in 2006