Use of metabolic and molecular methods for the identification of a Bacillus strain isolated from paper affected by foxing

Foxing of paper is a deterioration phenomenon occurring in the form of brown-yellowish spots, the abiotic and/or biotic causes of which are not yet completely understood. Nevertheless, microbiological infection has been recognized that may contribute to paper damage and therefore it becomes important to know the taxonomic position and the degradative activity of the potential infectious biological agents which mostly are fungi, but also bacteria and yeasts. A cellulolytic bacterial strain isolated from a foxed paper sample exhibited morphological and physiological characteristics of the Bacillus genus. To study its taxonomic position, different identification methods were used: the Biolog system, the direct amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction analysis (DAPD-PCR) and the partial sequencing of the 16S rDNA gene. Biolog system and partial sequencing of 16S rDNA gene assigned the strain to the Paenibacillus polymyxa species. DAPD-PCR analysis indicated a high similarity with Bacillus circulans, by comparing the isolated strain with some closely related Bacillus species.