Bacillus subtillis is a soil and intestinal bacterium. It is the best researched and most frequently used bacterium in biotechnology. It produces for instance over 20 different types of antibiotics that are very different in structure and activity.
Bacillus subtillis is a soil and intestinal bacterium. It is the best researched and most frequently used bacterium in biotechnology. It produces for instance over 20 different types of antibiotics that are very different in structure and activity.
Healthy intestinal bacterium
Bacillus subtilis is a common intestinal bacterium that is important to intestinal health. A recent study showed that when used to ferment soybeans as pig feed, Bacillus subtilis has a beneficial effect on enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract and intestinal morphology of piglets. The piglets were randomly given either soybean meal or fermented soybean meal. After the experiment was completed, the contents of the small intestine were collected, and the tissue was sampled at varying locations. The piglets that were fed fermented soybean meal had significantly taller intestinal villi (finger-like projections on the intestinal wall). They also showed a significant increase in digestive enzyme activity.
Antibiotic production
Bacillus subtilis is most commonly found in soil environments and on plant undergrowth. This habitat harbors an extremely competitive microbial community. This competition can cause a nutrients deficit for B. subtilis. When carbon-, nitrogen- and phosphorus-nutrient levels fall below the bacterium's optimal threshold, it produces spores. These spores can survive these suboptimal conditions, when the bacterium itself cannot. Scientists have demonstrated that Bacillus subtilis produces antibiotics just before sporulating. Antibiotic production increases B. subtilis's chance of survival as the toxin might kill competing microbes
Alternative for antibiotics
Cultures of B. subtilis were popular worldwide before the introduction of antibiotics as an immunostimulatory agent to aid treatment of gastrointestinal and urinary tract diseases. It was used throughout the 1950s as an alternative medicine, which upon digestion has been found to significantly stimulate broad-spectrum immune activity including activation of secretion of specific antibodies. It was marketed throughout America and Europe from 1946 as an immunostimulatory aid in the treatment of gut and urinary tract diseases such as rotavirus and shigellosis