title: phoR sequences as a phylogenetic marker to differentiate the species in the Bacillus subtilis group.
abstract: Bacillus subtilis and its closely related species are indistinguishable from one another by morphological characteristics and 16S rDNA sequences. In this study, the partial phoR sequence was tested to determine the phylogenetic relationship of species in the B. subtilis group. Degenerate primers were developed according to the relatively conserved nucleotide sequences of phoR and the linked gene phoP in the B. subtilis group. The primers amplified a 1100 bp phoR fragment from strains representative of 6 species in the B. subtilis group. Based on the sequenced fragments, 26 type strains comprising these 6 species were clearly distinguished. At the intraspecies level, the phoR sequence similarities were 90%-100%, but at the interspecies level, the phoR sequence similarities were 32.8%-75%. Compared with the gyrB sequence, the phoR sequences showed a larger divergence especially at the interspecies levels. Therefore, the phoR sequence may be an efficient alternative marker for phylogenetic and taxonomic analysis of species in the B. subtilis group. Twenty-three Bacillus undomesticated isolates were tested for identification and phylogenetic analysis based on the phoR and gyrB sequences. The 23 isolates could be clearly delineated into 4 distinct groups, 10 as B. subtilis, 3 as B. mojavensis, 2 as B. atrophaeus, and 8 as B. amyloliquefaciens.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Protection, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, IPM Centre of Hebei Province, Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Crops in Northern Region of North China, Ministry of Agriculture, PR China, Baoding, Hebei 071000, People's Republic of China, 071000.
authors.forename: Qinggang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Shezeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiuyun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Baoqing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stummer
authors.forename: Weixin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D027081:DNA Gyrase / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; C061279:PhoR protein, Bacteria; D027081:DNA Gyrase