Determination of Carbon Source Utilization of Bacillus and Pythium Species by Biolog Microplate Assay

The carbon utilizations of Bacillus species and Pythium species were investigated by using a Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay to determine if there are differences in the carbon utilizations of selected strains of these species. It may be possible to afford a competitive advantage to bacterial biological control agents by providing them with a substrate that they can readily use as a carbon source, for example, in a seed coating formulation. Microplates, identified as SFP, SFN and YT were used to identify spore-forming bacteria, nonspore-forming bacteria, and yeast, respectively. Bacterial and mycelial suspensions were adjusted to turbidities of 0.10 to 0.11 at 600 nm. One hundred microliters of each of the bacterial and mycelial suspension were inoculated into each well of each of the three types of microplates. L-arabinose, D-galactose, D-melezitose and D-melibiose of the 147 carbohydrates tested were found to be utilized only by bacteria, and not by Pythium species, by Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay, and this was confirmed by traditional shake flask culture. Thus, it indicated that the Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay could be readily used to search for specific carbon sources that could be utilized to increase the abilities of bacterial biological control agents to adapt to contrived environments.