Bacillus atrophaeus:main characteristics and biotechnological applications – a review

Abstract

The genus Bacillus includes a great diversity of industrially important strains, including Bacillus atrophaeus (formerly Bacillus subtilis var. niger). This spore-forming bacterium has been established as industrial bacteria in the production of biological indicators for sterilization, in studies of biodefense and astrobiology methods as well as disinfection agents, in treatment evaluation and as potential adjuvants or vehicles for vaccines, among other applications. This review covers an overview of the fundamental aspects of the B. atrophaeus that have been studied to date. Although the emphasis is placed on recent findings, basic information's such as multicellularity and growth characteristics, spore structure and lifecycle are described. The wide biotechnological application of B. atrophaeus spores, including vegetative cells, is briefly demonstrated, highlighting their use as a biological indicator of sterilization or disinfection.

A simple decontamination approach using hydrogen peroxide vapour forBacillus anthracisspore inactivation

“…While we were unable to find any study in the literature specifically comparing the resistance of B. anthracis Ames to B. atrophaeus (aka B. subtilis var Niger) upon exposure to HPV, B. atrophaeus is phenotypically similar to B. subtilis except for the production of pigment (Sella et al . ).…”

The combination of bacterial polymer and tragacanth to form antimicrobial biofilter for desalination

“…B. atrophaeus has a wide variety of biotechnological applications. Sella et al [30] studied the taxonomy, multicellularity, life cycle, and some aspects of biotechnological applications of Bacillus atrophaeus as a biomolecule producer. They showed that Bacillus atrophaeus could be a vehicle and adjuvant for vaccine and as a biological indicators to evaluate the efficiency of the sterilization processes.…”

Influence of spore and carrier material surface hydrophobicity on decontamination efficacy with condensing hydrogen peroxide vapour

“…Cardboard packaging materials with synthetic surfaces are often sterilized by a combination of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and mild thermal inactivation (Toledo 1988). For H 2 O 2 -based inactivation, spores of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus atrophaeus are used as biological indicators (BI) to validate the inactivation effect (VDMA 2006;Sella et al 2014). To achieve short inactivation times allowing fast filling processes, vaporized H 2 O 2 at high concentrations is applied.…”