This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Bacillus stearothermophilus is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Geobacillus stearothermophilus | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Geobacillus stearothermophilus |
Bacillus stearothermophilus (or Geobacillus stearothermophilus)1 is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium and a member of the division Firmicutes. The bacteria is a thermophile and is widely distributed in soil, hot springs, ocean sediment, and is a cause of spoilage in food products. It is commonly used as a challenge organism for sterilization validation studies and periodic check of sterilization cycles. The biological indicator contains spores of the organism on filter paper inside a vial. After sterilizing the cap is closed, an ampule of growth medium inside of the vial is crushed and the whole vial is incubated. A color and/or turbidity change indicates the results of the sterilization process, no change in indicates sterilization conditions were achieved, otherwise the growth of the spores indicates that the sterilization process has not been met.
Examples of this type of Biological Indicator (BI) using this bacillus are Getinge's Biosign Steam-24. BIs are used in conjunction with Chemical Indicators (CI) and Process Indicators (PI) to validate sterilization processes.
Molecular Biology
Recently, a DNA polymerase, Bst polymerase, derived from these bacteria has become important in molecular biology applications.
Bst DNA Polymerase has a helicase-like activity making it able to unwind DNA strands. Its optimum functional temperature is between 60-65°C and is denatured at temperatures above 70ºC These features make it useful in isothermal nucleic acid amplification 2. Isothermal amplification is similar to PCR but does not require the high temperature (96°C) step required to denature DNA.
References
- ^ "Notification that new names and new combinations have appeared in volume 50, part 2, of the IJSEM". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 51 (3): 795. 2001, http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/51/3/795.pdf.
- ^ Mori Y, Hirano T, Notomi T (2006). "Sequence specific visual detection of LAMP reactions by addition of cationic polymers". BMC Biotechnol. 6: 3. doi:. PMID 16401354.
 |
This bacteria-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 18 October 2008, at 17:45.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Bacillus stearothermophilus".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.