Phenotypic Characterization of Carbon Source Metabolism in Five Biocontrol Bacillus Species

In order to understand carbon source metabolism of the biocontrol bacteria agent Bacillus, seven strains in five species of Bacillus (Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Paenibacillus pabuli and Bacillus subtillis) were chosen for Biolog metabolic phenotypic analysis. The results indicated that the highest number of carbon metabolized by bacteria was found in B. pumilus, which had 107 different carbon sources; followed by B. licheniformis (96 carbon sources), B. amyloliquefaciens (89 carbon sources), P. pabuli (75 carbon sources for isolate 4 and 78 for isolate 5, respectively), and B. subtillis (74 carbon sources for isolate 1 and 70 for isolate 2, respectively). The metabolic phenotypic characteristics of Bacillus among the strains and the species were different. There were 54 common carbon sources metabolized by all the tested bacteria, among which twenty four were effectively metabolized, including 17 polysaccharose (such as L-arabinose, D-trehalose, D-mannitol, glycerol, D-xylose, D-ribose, D-fructose, D-glucose, sucrose, etc.) and 7 organic acids (D,L-malic acid, L-asparagine, citric acid, fumaric acid, L-malic acid, pyruvate and 5-ketone-D-glucose acid). These findings provide scientific evidence to further develop Bacillus as potential bio-control agents and their actual use in the future.