title: Phylogenetic analysis of Bacillus subtilis strains applicable to natto (fermented soybean) production.
abstract: Spore-forming Bacillus strains that produce extracellular poly-γ-glutamic acid were screened for their application to natto (fermented soybean food) fermentation. Among the 424 strains, including Bacillus subtilis and B. amyloliquefaciens, which we isolated from rice straw, 59 were capable of fermenting natto. Biotin auxotrophism was tightly linked to natto fermentation. A multilocus nucleotide sequence of six genes (rpoB, purH, gyrA, groEL, polC, and 16S rRNA) was used for phylogenetic analysis, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was also conducted on the natto-fermenting strains. The ability to ferment natto was inferred from the two principal components of the AFLP banding pattern, and natto-fermenting strains formed a tight cluster within the B. subtilis subsp. subtilis group.
authors.affiliation: Industrial Technology Institute of Ibaraki Prefecture, Nagaoka, Ibarakimachi, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Alejandro P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Rooney
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsukakoshi
authors.forename: Rikio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Hiromasa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Keitarou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kimura
mesh_terms: D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D001710:Biotin / Q000378:metabolism; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005285:Fermentation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D012275:Oryza / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D045730:Soy Foods / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D001710:Biotin