Genotypic diversity among Bacillus licheniformis strains from various sources.

Bacillus licheniformis is exploited industrially for the production of enzymes and has been shown to exhibit pathogenic properties. Because of these divergent characteristics, questions arise concerning intraspecies diversity. A comparative study by means of combined repetitive polymerase chain reaction, rpoB and gyrA sequencing, 16S rDNA targeted probe analysis, DNA-DNA hybridizations, gelatinase tests and antibiotic susceptibility tests was performed on a set of strains from diverse sources, including strains with pathogenic potential. B. licheniformis was found to consist of two lineages that are distinguished genotypically.