I have sequenced a bacterial strain which showed 100% similarity with both B. subtilis and B. pumilus with same hits. However, both of them are gram positive and hence I need to know the differences between their basic biochemical properties so that I could differentiate both the strains after analyzing their properties through polyphasic approach.
I can recomment to you this publication: Bacillus subtilis and other Gram-positive bacteria: Biochemistry, physiology and molecular genetics. link: https://books.googleco.in/books/about/Bacillus_Subtilis_and_Other_Gram_positiv.html?id=IT1yQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y.co
Thanks Dr. Abhisekh and Dr. Igor, your recommendations will definitely help in serving my purpose to some extent.
First, it should always be possible to distinguish between Bacillus subtilis and B. pumilus by DNA sequence data. According to the genome to genome distance calculator (ggdc.dsmz.de), the genomes of the type strains are only 77% identical in DNA sequence. Even the highly conserved 16S rRNA gene sequences are only 97% identical. I would remind you, when you are searching the GenBank database by BLAST, be sure to check the "Limit to Sequences from type material" box. There are many sequences in the database that are wrongly annotated as to taxonomic identity. If you limit the search to type material, you will only see the standard type strains for each species.
Second, it is very difficult to distinguish B. subtilis and B. pumilus by standard morphological and physiological characterization. The cell morphologies and colony morphologies are identical. B. subtilis isolates are more likely than B. pumilus isolates to hydrolyze starch and to reduce NO3 to NO2. There isn't much else. DNA sequence analysis is the easiest way to distinguish these species.
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