Aerobic growth of Bacillus subtilis NRS-762 in LB Lennox (unbuffered) medium at 25 deg C

This is a dataset containing the time course evolution of optical density (at 600 nm) and pH variation that describes aerobic growth of Bacillus subtilis NRS-762 (ATCC 8473) in LB Lennox (unbuffered) medium at 25 oC (room temperature) on a non-temperature controlled orbital shaker. The shaking speed was 250 rpm, and the culture format was 250 mL glass shake-flasks containing 100 mL medium. Optical density was measured using a Shimadzu Biospec Mini UV-Visible Spectrophotometer, and pH of culture broth monitored via a Mettler Toledo AE-100 pH meter outfitted with an Orion pH electrode. While B. subtilis NRS-762 exhibited good growth till 22.5 hours post-inoculation, drastic decline in optical density occurred after attainment of maximal optical density. Significantly, cellular debris was also absent in the shake-flasks after autoclave decontamination at 121 oC for 20 minutes. Flies were also observed on and around the cotton plug of the shake-flasks after evolution of a pungent odour during stationary phase. The aforementioned observations suggested possible interkingdom signaling between B. subtilis and flies via a volatile compound secreted by the bacterium. Coincidence of flies attraction with stationary phase further point to possible long-range dispersal function of volatile compound-mediated interkingdom signaling upon nutritional stress. A coherent conceptual model has been put forward in describing the observations, and is available at PeerJ Preprints, “Possible odour-mediated attraction of flies to Bacillus subtilis NRS-762 stationary phase culture.” (https://peerj.com/preprints/541v2/) Release of the original dataset would hopefully help interested researchers determine the extent of reproducibility, and also serve as reference data for comparing the growth performance of the bacterium with other microbes under similar conditions.