Bacillus Megateriumand Other Bacilli: Industrial Applications

Abstract

Strains of the genus Bacillus are Gram‐positive microorganisms. Many of them, such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Brevibacillus brevis , and Bacillus clausii offer several advantages in industrial applications. They all have a very efficient protein secretion system, grow on several different and cheap carbon sources, lack endotoxins, and are nonpathogenic. Proteins produced from and with the bacilli are of great industrial importance. Next to B. subtilis , B. megaterium has attracted the most attention in recent years. A toolbox for recombinant protein production, secretion, and purification has been developed that is based on various vectors with different origins of replication, selection markers, promoters, affinity tag sequences, and sequences for a signal peptide. The number of proteins recombinantly produced by B. megaterium has increased rapidly. The genomes of two B. megaterium strains namely QM B1551, which naturally contains seven different plasmids but also has a plasmidless derivative, and DSM319, a naturally plasmidless strain, have now been completely sequenced. Systems biotechnology investigations using transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analyses in combination with bioinformatics‐based modeling approaches have already started.

Bacilli-Mediated Degradation of Xenobiotic Compounds and Heavy Metals

“…So far, several reviews have been published dealing with the biotechnological application of Bacilli (Bunk et al, 2010 ; Kumar et al, 2013 ; Jouzani et al, 2017 ; Sansinenea, 2019 ). Kumar et al ( 2013 ) reviewed the significance of Bacilli for the production of biofuels, polyhydroxyalkanoates, and bioactive molecules.…”

“…Sansinenea and Ortiz ( 2011 ) described the importance of secondary metabolites produced by Bacilli . Bunk et al ( 2010 ) summarized the industrial applications of Bacillus megateriunm and other Bacilli . Sansinenea ( 2019 ) discussed the plant growth-promoting activities of Bacilli .…”

Production and Characterization of a Bioflocculant Produced by Bacillus salmalaya 139SI-7 and Its Applications in Wastewater Treatment

“…Moreover, various industrially important species from this genus have a reported history of safe applications in both the pharmaceutical and food industries [ 5 ]. For instance, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens , Bacillus clausii , B. licheniformis , Bacillus megaterium , and B. subtilis were reported to have several advantages in industrial applications [ 22 ]. In agricultural biotechnology, many Bacillus -derived products serve as microbial biofertilizers, fungicides, or pesticides [ 23 ].…”

Characterization and comparative genomic analysis of virulent and temperateBacillus megateriumbacteriophages

“…It is recognized as an endophyte and a potential biocontrol agent for plant diseases (Kildea et al, 2008). Furthermore, it is known to produce penicillin, amidase, various baking amylases and is used for the biotechnological production of pyruvate, vitamin B12, and so on (Bunk et al, 2009). In alkaline soils, B. megaterium plays a significant role in making insoluble phosphorus accessible to plants via the production of CO 2 and organic acids, which increases soil acidity and the fraction of solubilized phosphates.…”