Abstract

Bacillus subtilis is commonly used as a probiotic. Recently, some metabolites of B. subtilis were reported to cause hemolysis; however, the mechanism by which these metabolites cause hemolysis remains to be clarified. In this study, we cloned the hemolysis-associated gene yhdT and constructed a yhdT gene-deletion mutant of the B. subtilis 224 strain. Further, we determined the hemolytic activity of the culture supernatant of the yhdT gene-deletion mutant and found that the hemolytic activity of the yhdT gene-deletion mutant was lower than that of wild-type B. subtilis224. Thus, our results indicate that the yhdT gene contributes to the hemolytic activity of B. subtilis 224.

Key words: Bacillus subtilis, yhdT gene, hemolysis.