''Bacillus atrophaeus'' is a species of black-pigmented bacteria. Its type strain is NRRL NRS-213.
''B. atrophaeus'' strains have been used extensively in biomedicine as indicator strains for heat- and chemical-based decontamination regimens. Most of the strains in use are derivatives of a lineage of ''B. atrophaeus'' that originated at
Camp Detrick
Fort Detrick () is a United States Army Futures Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center of the U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, i ...
in the 1950s, where many modern biocontainment procedures were developed.
''B. atrophaeus'' has historically been known by several other names, including ''B. globigii'' (the origin of its military moniker "BG") and ''B. subtilis'' var. ''niger''. Modern phylogenetic analyses using multiple genetic methods have placed ''B. atrophaeus'' close to ''
B. subtilis
''Bacillus subtilis'', known also as the hay bacillus or grass bacillus, is a Gram-positive, catalase-positive bacterium, found in soil and the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, humans and marine sponges. As a member of the genus ''Bacillu ...
''.
Its original and still most prominent use is as a surrogate organism for pathogenic ''B. anthracis'',
beginning in the
U.S. bio-weapons program, as its pigmentation readily facilitated discrimination from non-pigmented background organisms in environmental samples.
Subsequent genomic and phenotypic analysis of strains derived from the Camp Detrick isolates revealed that they had been deliberately selected for strains that exhibited elevated rates of sporulation.
References
Further reading
*Fritze, Dagmar, and Rüdiger Pukall. "Reclassification of bioindicator strains Bacillus subtilis DSM 675 and Bacillus subtilis DSM 2277 as Bacillus atrophaeus". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology51.1 (2001): 35–37.
*Youssef, Nabil N., and Joyce Knoblett. "Culture filtrate of Bacillus atrophaeus induced abnormalities in Ascosphaera apis". Mycologia (1998): 937–946.
*
*Luftman, Henry S., and Michael A. Regits. "B. Atrophaeus and G. Stearothermophilus biological indicators for chlorine dioxide gas decontamination". Applied Biosafety: Journal of the American Biological Safety Association 13.3 (2008): 143–157.
*
External links
*
LPSNType strain of ''Bacillus atrophaeus'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
atrophaeus
Bacteria described in 1989
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