As the decade progresses this prediction is rapidly being realized, and microbial enzymes are becoming increasingly important in such diverse fields as medicine, brewing, and timber preservation. The genus Bacillus has played a major role in this development as evidenced by the distribution of the papers read at the Fifth International Fermentation Symposium, 1976 (64). Of 23 papers in the sess...

Alkalophilic bacilli maintain a cytoplasmic pH that is lower than optimal external pH values. The current study, using isolated membrane vesicles from Bacillus alcalophilus, indicates that respiration results in proton extrusion as in other organisms. Cation/proton antiporters then catalyze inward proton movements. Upon energization with ascorbate/N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine, Na'-l...

Numerous alkalotolerant and alkalophilic bacteria, with concentrations ranging from 10 to 103 cells 100 ml-' water sample, were isolated from seawater in the Pacific and Indian Oceans using a buffered medium of pH 10.6. The pH effects on growth rates were used to define the occurrence of three types of alkalotolerant and alkalophilic bacterial groups: (1) bacteria exhibiting high growth rates t...