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Updated: Oct 10, 2026

Bioprospecting of Extremophilic Microorganisms to Address Environmental Pollution
Published on: December 30, 2021
A thermophilic Bacillus isolated from an Eolian shallow hydrothermal vent, able to produce exopolysaccharides
B Nicolaus1, A Panico, M C Manca
1Istituto per la Chimica di Molecole di Interesse Biologico, CNR, Arco Felice Na, Italy. bnicolaus@icmib.na.cnr.it
Abstract:
A thermophilic aerobic microorganism, able to produce two exocellular polysaccharides (EPS1 and EPS2), was isolated from a shallow hydrothermal vent at Vulcano island (Eolian Islands, Italy). EPS1 and EPS2 were based on mannose and glucose although in a different ratio. EPS2 possessed a trisaccharide repeating unit with a manno-pyranoside configuration. New isolate phenotype was studied by physiological and morphological observations, including biochemical and antimicrobial susceptibility tests (134). Previous analyses carried out on 87 field isolates and 8 thermophilic reference bacilli displayed low phenotypic similarity level (S(SM) = 65%) with Bacillus thermodenitrificans DSM 465. Optimal growth occurs at 65 degrees C and pH 7.0. Oxidase and catalase are negative. The guanine-plus-cytosine (G+C) content of DNA is 52.7%. Genotypic investigations demonstrated the diversity of the isolate with fifteen selected thermophilic Bacillus spp. when we compared the restriction patterns of the amplified 16S rDNA. The membrane lipids are based on fatty acids mainly belonging to the iso-family.
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