DSM 21097 – The Story of a Bacillus subtilis Strain

From B-11 via B-10172 to DSM 21097 – the documented trail of a Bacillus subtilis strain spanning more than three decades.

Bacillus subtilis is the name of a bacterial species.

However, within this species there are numerous individual strains – and they can differ significantly from one another in their biological characteristics.

This is precisely where the story of Bacillus subtilis DSM 21097 begins.

The trail begins in the early 1990s

The story goes back more than three decades – to Russia in the early 1990s.

At that time, scientists were investigating a question that sounds surprisingly modern today:

How differently can bacteria behave even though they belong to the same species?

The aim was not simply to search for Bacillus subtilis.

The goal was to identify individual strains with specific biological characteristics.

The microbiologist Tatjana Gryazneva later reported that during the early work, approximately 1,000 Bacillus strains were examined, from which 116 strains were selected for further evaluation.

Gryazneva herself was involved in this further selection process among the 116 strains.

This narrower selection process ultimately led to the strain whose history brings us today to Bacillus subtilis DSM 21097.

At the beginning there was B-11

The strain that emerged from this selection process initially carried a rather unspectacular designation:

Its documented history can be traced back to at least 1991.

Later, the strain was listed in the Russian strain collection VKPM under another designation.

From a designation to a biological address

Eventually, the strain reached the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, today's DSMZ.

There it received the designation under which it can be uniquely identified today:

What at first glance looks like a bureaucratic number serves an important function.

The strain designation makes clear that this is not simply an unspecified representative of the species Bacillus subtilis.

It refers to a specifically defined strain with a traceable origin and history.

Why the strain designation can be decisive

Two bacteria can belong to the same species and still differ in individual biological characteristics.

This is precisely why the designation Bacillus subtilis alone is not sufficient when research findings or documented properties need to be assigned to a specific organism.

This example does not show that one strain is fundamentally “better” than another.

It demonstrates something more fundamental:

One among many – and precisely why it is interesting

The story of DSM 21097 is therefore much more than a sequence of different strain collection numbers.

It tells the story of a multi-stage selection process in which a smaller group of 116 strains was first selected from a large initial pool.

From this narrower selection, further testing and selection took place. Tatjana Gryazneva was involved in this part of the work.

This is precisely where the true meaning of this story lies:

Not the largest possible number of strains.
But the targeted selection of a specific strain.

And it was precisely this selection that ultimately led to the strain identity now uniquely designated as DSM 21097.

The same strain for almost one and a half decades

Our work with DSM 21097 did not begin with this page. We have been working with exactly this strain since 2012.

Throughout all these years, the strain identity has remained unchanged: Bacillus subtilis DSM 21097.

This continuity is important to us. Our experience was not built through changing Bacillus species, different strains or constantly new mixtures, but through many years of work with one clearly defined strain.

What originally emerged from an extensive selection process has accompanied our work for almost one and a half decades.

A strain with a traceable identity

For us, this traceability is precisely what matters.

Therefore, the focus is not only on the species designation Bacillus subtilis, but on the specific strain, its origin and its unique identity.