Bacillus megaterium

Bacillus megaterium
Scientific classification
Phylum:	Firmicutes
Class:	Bacilli
Order:	Bacillales
Family:	Bacillaceae
Genus:	Bacillus
Species:	B. megaterium
Binomial name
Bacillus megaterium

Bacillus megaterium is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive, endospore forming, species of bacteria used as a soil inoculant in agriculture and horticulture. Bacterium is arranged into the streptobacillus form.

Bacillus megaterium is a rod shaped bacterium and one of the largest eubacteria found in soil. Groups of the bacteria are often found in chains where the cells are joined together by polysaccharides on the cell walls. Bacillus megaterium is able to survive in some extreme conditions such as desert environments due to the spores it forms. Where there are favourable conditions the spores can survive. Sometimes this particular bacteria can be found on common surfaces that are frequently touched.

Bacillus megaterium produces penicillin amidase used for making penicillin. It produces enzymes for modifying corticosteroids, as well as several amino acid dehydrogenases.

History of the name

The species was described by A. deBary in 1884, who called it Bacillus megaterium, but did not give an etymology, However, some subsequent authors called it B. megatherium assuming the name was incorrectly spelt.

The name is a nominative noun in apposition (see Rule 12 of IBCN) and is formed from the Greek adjective mega, (μέγας , μεγάλη, μέγα) meaning "great", and a second word of unclear etymology. three hypotheses of the epithet "megaterium" are possible:

• unintentional orthographic error (unlikely given the fact that de Bary and his students, consistently used the epithet "megaterium"), whereas it should have been megatherium", from therion (θηρίον, meaning "beast" ), to mean "great beast".
• a contraction of "megabacterium" as speculated by Rippel in given the fact that de Bary called the bacterium with the nickname Grosstier or Grossvich
• stems from teras, teratos (τέρας, τέρατος, a neuter noun meaning omen or wonder or, indirectly, monster,) which could be interpreted to mean "great monster" (with the Neolatin name being formed incorrectly given that there is no evidence of a Greek third declension noun when converted into Latin becoming a second Latin declention using the nominative stem, which is "ter-" while the other case use the stem "terat-". If were converted into a third decleasion noun it would have been "megateras, -atis").

Consequently it was desided in the first jouridical opinion of the Bacteriological code that the name should remain "megaterium" given the unclear meaning.

The etymology listed in LPSN is, despite being not quite correction, a fusion of the first and third interpretation Gr. adj. megas, large; Gr. n. teras -atis, monster, beast; N.L. n. megaterium, big beast.