Caution!

Hello and welcome to this dry and less exciting but still super important part of our website. We are not sure if you intended to come here. If you are looking for information about our awesome ideas, visit our Project page. If you want to marvel at our fantastic findings, head over to Results. You might also be interested in how to shape your lab work greener: Take a look at iGEM goes green for that. However, if you are actually searching for protocols, safety measures or want to know more about how awesome Bacillus sutbilis is - you are dead right here. Enjoy your stay!

Bacillus subtilis

B. subtilis is one of the best-studied gram-positive microorganism, and a model bacterium for studying bacterial differentiation (e.g. endospore formation) and phenotypic heterogeneity.[1][2] Its ability to become naturally competent makes B. subtilis an organism which is easily accessible for genetic manipulation.[3] The GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status and the secretory capacity made B. subtilis a preferred host of choice for big scale production of secreted proteins, such as lipases, proteases and amylases, highlighting the industrial relevance of this bacterium.[4] [5]

In addition, the iGEM Team LMU-Munich 2012 has constructed the Bacillus BioBrickBox, which contains several well evaluated integrative vectors and other parts for the use in B. subtilis, thus providing a powerful toolbox to engineer B. subtilis.[6]

References

[1]	Lopez, D., Vlamakis, H. & Kolter, R. (2009) Generation of multiple cell types in Bacillus subtilis: from soil bacterium to super-secreting cell factory. FEMS Microbiol. Rev., 33, 152–163.
[2]	Lopez, D. & Kolter, R. (2010) Extracellular signals that define distinct and coexisting cell fates in Bacillus subtilis. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 34, 134–149
[3]	Kaufenstein, M., van der Laan, M. & Graumann, P. L. (2011) The three-layered DNA uptake machinery at the cell pole in competent Bacillus subtilis cells is a stable complex. J. Bacteriol. 193, 1633–1642.
[4]	Fu L. L., Xu Z. R., Li W. F., Shuai J. B., Lu P. and Hu C. X. (2006) Protein secretion pathways in Bacillus subtilis: implication for optimization of heterologous protein secretion. Biotechnology advances 25, 1 (1-12).
[5]	Harwood, C. R. (1992) Bacillus subtilis and its relatives: molecular biological and industrial workhorses. Trends Biotechnol. 10, 247–256
[6]	Radeck, J., Kraft, K., Bartels, J., Cikovic, T., Dürr, F., Emenegger, J., Kelterborn, S., Sauer, C., Fritz, G., Gebhard, S., and Mascher, T. (2013) The Bacillus BioBrick Box: generation and evaluation of essential genetic building blocks for standardized work with Bacillus subtilis. J Biol Eng 7, 29.