''Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius'' is a

thermophilic A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earl ...

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 ...

bacterium 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 ...

, and a member of 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. It was first isolated from soil in Japan in 1983. The species name ''thermoglucosidasius'' comes from the words ''therme'' denoting heat, and ''glucosidasius'' denoting starch-hydrolyzing glucosidase activity.

Biology and biochemistry

''G. thermoglucosidasius'' is

(bacterium that retains

Crystal violet Crystal violet or gentian violet, also known as methyl violet 10B or hexamethyl pararosaniline chloride, is a triarylmethane dye used as a histological stain and in Gram's method of classifying bacteria. Crystal violet has antibacterial, antif ...

dye during gram-staining) and

facultatively anaerobic A facultative anaerobic organism is an organism that makes ATP by aerobic respiration if oxygen is present, but is capable of switching to fermentation if oxygen is absent. Some examples of facultatively anaerobic bacteria are ''Staphylococcus' ...

(produces ATP by

aerobic respiration Cellular respiration is the process by which biological fuels are oxidised in the presence of an inorganic electron acceptor such as oxygen to produce large amounts of energy, to drive the bulk production of ATP. Cellular respiration may be des ...

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

is present, but capable of switching to

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

anaerobic respiration Anaerobic respiration is respiration using electron acceptors other than molecular oxygen (O2). Although oxygen is not the final electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain. In aerobic organisms undergoing re ...

if oxygen is absent). ''G. thermoglucosidasius'' is classified as a thermophile as optimal growth occurs at 60 °C (140 °F), although strains have demonstrated ability to grow at temperatures between 37 °C (98.6 °F) and 68 °C (154.4 °F). Their rod-shaped cells are less than 3.0

micrometers The micrometre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American and British English spelling differences# ...

(μm) long and less than 0.9 μm in diameter. Under a microscope, the cells are observed to occur either singly or in short chains, while possessing peritrichous fagella for motility or appearing non-motile. Vegetative ''G. thermoglucosidasius'' sporulates, producing one endospore per cell located terminally or subterminally in slightly swollen or non-swollen sporangia. It can live on a wide variety of substrates. ''G. thermoglucosidasius'' uses mixed-acid fermentation in anaerobic conditions, producing lactate,

succinate Succinic acid () is a dicarboxylic acid with the chemical formula (CH2)2(CO2H)2. The name derives from Latin ''succinum'', meaning amber. In living organisms, succinic acid takes the form of an anion, succinate, which has multiple biological ro ...

formate Formate (IUPAC name: methanoate) is the conjugate base of formic acid. Formate is an anion () or its derivatives such as ester of formic acid. The salts and esters are generally colorless.Werner Reutemann and Heinz Kieczka "Formic Acid" in ''Ull ...

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

acetate An acetate is a salt (chemistry), salt formed by the combination of acetic acid with a base (e.g. Alkali metal, alkaline, Alkaline earth metal, earthy, Transition metal, metallic, nonmetallic or radical Radical (chemistry), base). "Acetate" als ...

and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

. Growth can be driven by

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 ...

, using a large variety of redox pairs.

Taxonomy

Prior to 1997, ''G. thermoglucosidasius'' was categorized into the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

'' in Group 5, a phenotypically and phylogenetically coherent group of

bacilli Bacilli is a taxonomic class of bacteria that includes two orders, Bacillales and Lactobacillales, which contain several well-known pathogens such as ''Bacillus anthracis'' (the cause of anthrax). ''Bacilli'' are almost exclusively gram-positive ...

displaying very high similarity among 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 ...

sequences. However, on the basis of physiological characteristics, fatty acid analysis, DNA hybridization studies and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, Nazina ''et al.'' proposed the creation of the genus ''Geobacillus'' to contain ''B. thermoglucosidasius'', ''B. stearothermophilus'' (type species), ''B. thermoleovorans'', ''B. thermocatenulatus'', ''B. kaustophilus'', and ''B. thermodenitricans''. The type strain of ''G. thermoglucosidasius'' was subsequently chosen as strain DSM....

Genome

To date, three completed public genome sequences are accessible. ...

Metabolism

Most thermoglucosidasius strains have hydrolytic activity to starch, gelatin, and pullulan, as well as producing acid from adonitol, cellobiose, inositol, and D-xylitol. Colonies are offwhite and mucoid.

Use in Biotechnology

References

External links

Type strain of ''Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5533950 Thermophiles Bacillaceae