The thermophilic microbial flora of general garden and domestic wastes composts, derived from thermogenic, post-thermogenic and maturation phases, was analysed using spore and total plate counts in combination with an optimised RAPD protocol. A total of 459 isolates were recovered obtained at 55 degrees C, and another 56 at 70 degrees C using tryptic soy-starch agar plates, with near-equal numbers being derived from total plate counts or spore preparations. The isolates were obtained from 11 compost samples and were assigned to eighteen different RAPD fingerprint types, with 76.1% of these ultimately being positively assigned by their RAPD profiles to just 2 species including Bacillus thermodenitrificans and B. licheniformis. Viable cell numbers ranged from 1.4 to 150 x 10(6) colony forming units per gram compost (wet weight), with the highest two counts being from 2 week and 4 week old compost samples with temperatures of 70 degrees C and 55 degrees C, respectively. B. thermodenitrificans was a dominant isolate (representing more than 50% of isolates from total plate counts) in 7 of the 11 individual compost total plate count samples between 30 degrees C to 73 degrees C, and accounted for 68.9% of all isolates overall. Another relatively common Bacillus species that was identified with RAPDs in significant numbers included B. licheniformis (7.2% of all isolates and dominant isolate in 1 sample). Three other relatively common RAPD profiles could not be identified by comparison with known species in a RAPD profile database but were tentatively identified using 16S rDNA sequence comparisons. These were B. sporothermodurans (4.9% of all isolates and dominant in 1 sample), B. thermosphaericus (7.4% and dominant in 1 sample) and Terrabacter tumescens (5.0%). Overall, based on the vegetative and spore count results and the subsequent RAPD-based identification, the data strongly support a significant role for B. thermodenitrificans in the composting process, and casts doubt on the notion that B. stearothermophilus sensu strictu (DSMZ 22) is a prominent member within compost ecology.

中文翻译：

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堆肥中嗜热芽孢杆菌属物种的计数，并使用随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）方案进行鉴定。

使用孢子和总板数与优化的RAPD方案相结合，分析了一般花园和生活垃圾堆肥的嗜热微生物菌群，这些菌群来自生热，后生热和成熟阶段。使用胰蛋白酶大豆淀粉琼脂平板在55摄氏度下回收了459株分离菌，在70摄氏度下回收了另外56份，从平板总数或孢子制备物中获得了几乎相等的数量。这些分离物是从11个堆肥样品中获得的，并被分配给18种不同的RAPD指纹类型，其中76.1％最终通过其RAPD谱图被阳性分配给仅2个物种，包括热芽孢杆菌和地衣芽孢杆菌。活细胞数范围为每克堆肥1.4至150 x 10（6）个菌落形成单位（湿重），最高的两个计数分别来自温度分别为70摄氏度和55摄氏度的2周龄和4周龄的堆肥样品。在30摄氏度至73摄氏度之间的11个堆肥总板数样本中，有7个样本中B.thermodenitrificificans是主要的分离株（占总板数的50％以上），占所有分离菌总数的68.9％。用RAPD鉴定到的另一种相对常见的芽孢杆菌属物种包括地衣芽孢杆菌（占所有分离株的7.2％和1个样品中的优势分离株）。无法通过与RAPD配置文件数据库中的已知物种进行比较来识别其他三个相对常见的RAPD配置文件，但使用16S rDNA序列比较来初步确定。这些是孢子梭菌（占所有分离株的4.9％，在1个样品中占优势），嗜热芽孢杆菌（7.4％，在1个样品中占优势）和土杆菌（5.0％）。总体而言，基于营养和孢子计数结果以及随后基于RAPD的鉴定，这些数据强烈支持热脱皮芽孢杆菌在堆肥过程中的重要作用，并让人质疑B. stearothermophilus sensu strictu（DSMZ 22）的观念。是堆肥生态中的重要成员。