Download Bacillus licheniformis

Jennifer Rodney
Major Works/Major Issues
9/26/06
Bacillus Licheniformis
I am amazing. I am even better than Superman. My name is bacillus
licheniformis. I am the neglected cousin of bacillus subtilis, the second most studied
bacteria in the world. I am a Gram-positive, spore-bearing, saprophytic, facultative
anaerobic bacteria. Because I like to eat decaying matter, it makes sense that I prefer to
live in the soil. Also, I guess my first name, Bacillus, gives away the fact that I am rod
shaped. I have several different uses to the world. I just don’t know what they would do
without me. I am great at producing proteases and amylases, proteases, penicillinase,
pentosanase, cycloglucosyltransferase, β-mannanase and several pectinolytic enzymes.
Many of these enzymes are used by industrial companies to produce detergents. These
enzymes greatly increase the cleaning effect of the detergent and help out many families
in dire need, such as when they spill spaghetti on their white t-shirts. I am the best
bacterium to put in detergents because I grow best in temperatures around 50 degrees
Celcius, which is the temperature of detergent in a running washing machine. Most other
bacteria cannot handle the heat, and they will stop working in such conditions.
I do have other noble causes in the world as well. I am used in the topical
polypeptide antibiotic Bacitracin. Bacitracin is used for skin and eye infections, as well
as to prevent bacterial infection of a wound. I am also used in the production of useful
chemicals such as citric acid, inosine, inosinic acid and poly-γ-glutamic acid. However,
since I am not as well researched as my spoiled cousin, bacillus subtilis, I have many
more uses that you humans have not found out about yet. Hopefully some of you all will
go into research and find out more about how I can save the world!
Works Cited:
Bacillus Licheniformis.
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/2can/genomes/genomes.html?http://www.ebi.ac.uk/2can/genomes/b
acteria/Bacillus_licheniformis.html.
Complete genome sequence of the industrial bacterium Bacillus licheniformis and
comparisons with closely related Bacillus species.
http://genomebiology.com/2004/5/10/r77