TYPING OF BACILLUS-SPOROTHERMODURANS AND OTHER BACILLUS SPECIES ISOLATED FROM MILK BY REPETITIVE ELEMENT SEQUENCE BASED PCR

When analysing raw milli for the presence of Bacillus sporothermoduran s, 11 Bacillus strains were isolated which could be differentiated fro m known Bacillus, Brevibacillus and Paenibacillus spp, by different pr imer specificity in PCR experiments, indicating that they probably bel ong to Bacillus species as yet undescribed, Using repetitive element s equence based PCR (REP-PCR), these 11 strains could be clearly disting uished from B. sporothermodurans as well as from each other. Eighty-fi ve B. sporothermodurans strains were characterized by a typical REP-pa ttern. Using REP-PCR combined with separation on non-denaturing polyac rylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining, individual B. sporot hermodurans strains could be discriminated, which was not possible by methods previously published.