Isolation and Characterization of Thermophilic Bacillus spp. from Geothermal Environments on Deception Island, South Shetland Archipelago

Abstract

Ten bacterial strains isolated from water and sediment samples taken from geothermal areas of Deception Island, in the South Shetland archipelago, were found to represent six distinct types of thermophilic, Gram-positive, aerobic, catalase positive, endospore-forming rods, identified as Bacillus sp. Six representative strains were subjected to routine phenotypic characterization, numerical taxonomic, and chemotaxonomic analyses. Two isolates were identified as thermophilic strains of B. licheniformis and B. megaterium, but the four other strains could not be identified as known species of Bacillus and, hence, may represent new ones.