Monitoring of marine <i>Bacillus</i> diversity among the bacteria community of sea water

Abstract

Bacillus species are ubiquitous and diverse both in the terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Efforts were made to enrich for marine Bacillus using the medium containing manganese that stimulate spore
germination an indication of manganese reduction by Bacillus. Two strains identified as Bacillus pumilus using 16S rRNA gene sequence were isolated from Buzzers Bay seawater at 45 feet dept. The strains spores were centrally located and they were able to tolerate 1.0 M NaCl concentration indicating their marine origin. Although, different enrichment medium tested could not support growth of different species of Bacillus in the seawater. The result of the analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the clone library showed that the bacteria in the seawater are diverse. The diversity of bacteria in the seawater was also indicated by the FISH probe signals showing that marine bacteria at 33-45 dept in Woods Hole sea water are diverse.