Isolation and characterisation of Bacillus flavothermus strains from a hotspring in North-East Turkey

Ayder Hot Spring located in North-East of Turkey was investigated with resp ect to presence of thermophilic microorganisms. Based on phenotypic charact eristics, all of the five aerobic isolates belonged to the genus Bacillus a nd grew optimally at 50-60 degrees C on nutrient agar. According to nutriti onal characteristics, total protein profiles, % G+C ratio and sequence of 1 6S rDNA gene, these isolates were identified as strains of Bacillus flavoth ermus with some differences from the reference strain. Their a-amylase and peroxidase activities were also investigated. These results showed that alp ha-amylase activities of new Bacillus flavothermus strains differ from Baci llus flavothermus DSM 2641 and we found that Bacillus flavothermus DSM 2641 has low while 3 of our new isolates (AB03, ABD04 and AB05) have high therm ostable peroxidase activity.