Brevibacillus as a biological tool: a short review.

The significance of Brevibacillus has been documented scientifically in the published literature and commercially in heterologous recombinant protein catalogs. Brevibacillus is one of the most widespread genera of Gram-positive bacteria, recorded from the diverse environmental habitats. The high growth rate, better transformation efficiency by electroporation, availability of shuttle vectors, production of negligible amount of extracellular protease, and the constitutive expression of heterologous proteins make some strains of this genus excellent laboratory models. Regarding biotechnological applications, this genus continues to be a source of various enzymes of great biotechnological interest due to their ability to biodegrade low density polyethylene, ability to act as a candidate bio-control agent, and more recently acknowledged as a tool for the overexpression. This article reviews the properties of Brevibacillus spp. as better biological tools with varied applications.