title: Studies on the composition and properties of thermophilic Bacillus populations in subterranean thermal waters of Budapest (Hungary).
abstract: A collection of 148 thermophilic Bacillus isolates were obtained from two thermal wells (water temperature at about 70 degrees C) in the area of Budapest (Hungary). These isolates, furthermore seven authentic thermophilic reference strains of Bacillus spp. were submitted to detailed comparative biochemical-physiological studies. Overall similarities of these strains for 134 unit characters were determined by the SSM coefficient and clustering achieved using the UPGMA algorithm. According to the results of our computer aided numerical taxonomic analyses, numerous metabolic types, varieties and mutants of a single Bacillus sp. not identical with the known thermophilic Bacillus species constitute the major fraction of the indigenous thermophilic microbial communities in the thermal waters of the Pascal and Széchenyi wells. The data also revealed, (1) that the most adapted varieties of this Bacillus sp. can form the most dense local populations in these subterranean ecological systems. Furthermore, it seems to be probable (2) that the cells of the most commonly occurring varieties of this Bacillus sp. may be able to migrate in the underground thermal water systems between diverse subterranean regions located more or less far from one another.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D001407:Bacillus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D003470:Culture Media / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006814:Hungary; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014876:Water Pollution
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media