Deoxyribonucleic acid homology experiments were performed among representative strains of Bacillus polymyxa, Bacillus macerans, and Bacillus azotofixans and other nitrogen-fixing Bacillus strains identified as B. polymyxa-like. All B. azotofixans strains showed less than 20% homology when B. polymyxa or B. macerans was used as a probe. The range of homology among B. azotofixans strains (strain P3L-5T[T = type strain] was used as the probe) varied from 54 to 100%, indicating that these strains comprise a relatively homogeneous species. Strain Hino appears to be a variant of B. azotofixans because it exhibited only 28 to 44% homology with this species. Strains P3L-2, CR5D-16, and CR5D-23 showed less than 20% homology with B. polymyxa, B. macerans, and B. azotofixans, indicating that these strains do not belong to these species. Additional data will be necessary to fully clarify the taxonomy of these nitrogen-fixing Bacillus strains.
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