Kelsey's soil project
Classification
Domain; Phylum; Class; Order; family [Others may be used. Use NCBI link to find]
Species
Domain: Bacteria
Kingdom: Eubacteria
Phylum: Firmicutes
Class: Bacilli
Order: Bacillales
Family: Bacillaceae
Species: Bacillus
Habitat Information
Describe the location and conditions under which the organism was isolated.
I located the sample of my soil under a big oak tree. The ground was very moist from raining a few days prior to getting the soil sample.
Date of Collection: 1/28/2015
Location of my soil sample: 10698 Deer Canyon Rd, Jonestown TX 78645.
Depth: 3 inches
Humidity: 50%
24hr Rainfall- 20%
Latitude: 30.501076
Longitude: -97.935123
Description and Significance
Describe the appearance (colonial and cellular), possible antimicrobial activity etc. of the organism, and why the organism might be significant.
Bacillus is a gram positive aerobic or anaerobic bacteria that is widely found in soil and water. Bacillus is a rod shaped bacteria. Bacillus will test positive for enzyme catalase when there has been oxygen used or present. Bacillus subtilis is present everywhere, in the air and in the soil and in plant compost. It has been predicted that it spends most of its time inactive and in spore form. When the bacteria does become active, it produces many enzymes. Bacillus Subtilis has become the model agent in laboratory research.
Genome Structure
Describe the size and content of the genome. How many chromosomes? Circular or linear? Other interesting features? What is known about its sequence? Include S Ribosomal sequence that you obtained from PCR and sequencing here.
Bacillus subtilis is one of the best characterized members of the gram positive bacteria. Its genome of 4,214,810 base pairs comprises 4,100 protein-coding genes. Of these protein-coding genes, 53% are represented once, while a quarter of the genome corresponds to several gene families that have been greatly expanded by gene duplication, the largest family containing 77 putative ATP-binding transport proteins
Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle
Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.
Physiology and Pathogenesis
Biochemical characteristics, enzymes made, other characteristics that may be used to identify the organism; contributions to environment (if any).
If relevant, how does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
References
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47965/bacillus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus
http://web.mst.edu/~microbio/BIO221_2009/B_subtilis.html
Author
Page authored by Kelsey Huddleston_____, student of Prof. Kristine Hollingsworth at Austin Community College.
