Bacillus subtilis currently encompasses four subspecies, Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis, Bacillus subtilis subsp. inaquosorum, Bacillus subtilis subsp. spizizenii and Bacillus subtilis subsp. stercoris. Several studies based on genomic comparisons have suggested these subspecies should be promoted to species status. Previously, one of the main reasons for leaving them as subspecies was the lack of distinguishing phenotypes. In this study, we used comparative genomics to determine the genes unique to each subspecies and used these to lead us to the unique phenotypes. The results show that one difference among the subspecies is they produce different bioactive secondary metabolites. B. subtilis subsp. spizizenii is shown conserve the genes to produce mycosubtilin, bacillaene and 3,3'-neotrehalosadiamine. B. subtilis subsp. inaquosorum is shown conserve the genes to produce bacillomycin F, fengycin and an unknown PKS/NRPS cluster. B. subtilis subsp. stercoris is shown conserve the genes to produce fengycin and an unknown PKS/NRPS cluster. While B. subtilis subsp. subtilis is shown to conserve the genes to produce 3,3'-neotrehalosadiamine. In addition, we update the chemotaxonomy and phenotyping to support their promotion to species status.
Keywords: Antibiotic; Antifungal; Bacilysin; Core genome; Lipopeptide; Secondary metabolites; Subtilosin; Surfactin.