Isolation and molecular identification of a facultatively anaerobic bacterium from the hot spring of Azad Kashmir

A thermophilic facultatively anaerobic bacterium (tp-1) was isolated from the tatta pani hot spring in azad kashmir. the isolate had entire and slimy colonies while the cells were small rods and gram-positive. phylogenetic analysis based on partial 16s rrna gene sequence comparisons showed high levels of similarity of the tp-1 (> 95%) with geobacillus pallidus. optimum temperature and ph for the growth of the strain tp-1 were found to be 65oc and 7.0 respectively. tp-1 gave positive results for ortho nitrophenyl-β-d-galactopyranosidase (onpg) and gelatin hydrolysis (gel) while other tests such as arginine dihydrolases,lysine decarboxlase,ornithine decarboxylases,h2s production,urease,tryptophan deaminases,indole production,acetoin production,fermentation/oxidation (glucose,mannitol,inositol,sorbitol,rhamnose,sucrose,melibiose,amygdalin,arabinose) and citrate utilization were negative.