Abstract: A method of producing amino acids by culturing an amino acid auxotroph of a biologically pure strain of a type I methylotrophic bacterium of the genus Bacillus which exhibits sustained growth at 50° C. using methanol as a carbon and energy source and requiring vitamin B12 and biotin is provided.

Abstract: The present invention provides a unique series of nucleotide cleaving agents and a method for cleaving a nucleotide sequence, whether single-stranded or double-stranded DNA or RNA, using and a cationic metal complex having at least one polydentate ligand to cleave the nucleotide sequence phosphate backbone to yield a hydroxyl end and a phosphate end.

Abstract: A method of producing glutamic acid by culturing an amino acid auxotroph of a biologically pure strain of Bacillus methanolicus which exhibits sustained growth at 50.degree. C. using methanol as a carbon and energy source and requiring vitamin B.sub.12 and biotin is provided.

Abstract: A method of producing glutamic acid by culturing a biologically pure wild type Bacillus methanolicus which exhibits sustained growth at 50.degree. C. using methanol as a carbon and energy source and requiring vitamin B.sub.12 and biotin is provided.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for degradation of a halogenated hydrocarbon compound such as trichloroethylene (TCE) which utilizes a soluble methane monooxygenase or a bacterium comprising the monooxygenase. Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b is a soluble methane monooxygenase-producing bacterium which when cultivated by continuous culturing comprising exposing the bacterium to a continuous-flow gas mixture of air and methane in a ratio of about 25:1-1:20, respectively. Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b is capable of degrading TCE at rates from about 500-10,000 micromoles per hour per gram cells. The present method is useful to degrade halogenated hydrocarbon compounds such as TCE at initial concentrations up to 10,000 micromoles/l.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for the direct biological production of calcium magnesium acetate using a novel combination of an aerobic thermophilic bacterium of the genus Bacillus, capable of supporting the sustained production of substantial quantities of acetic acid at low pH, high temperatures, and high salt concentrations. Strains of bacterium of the genus Bacillus selected and isolated for use in the present invention produce acetic acid in the presence of a neutralizing source of calcium and magnesium ions, such as dolomitic lime, to produce substantial quantities of calcium magnesium acetate.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for degradation of a halogenated hydrocarbon compound such as trichloroethylene (TCE) which utilizes a soluble methane monooxygenase or a bacterium comprising the monooxygenase. Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b is a soluble methane monooxygenase-producing bacterium which when cultivated by continuous culturing comprising exposing the bacterium to a continuous-flow gas mixture of air and methane in a ratio of about 25:1-1:20, respectively. Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b is capable of degrading TCE at rates from about 500-10,000 micromoles per hour per gram cells. The present method is useful to degrade halogenated hydrocarbon compounds such as TCE at initial concentrations up to 10,000 micromoles/l.

Abstract: A cloning vehicle comprising: a replication determinant effective for replicating the vehicle in a non-C.sub.1 -utilizing host and in a C.sub.1 -utilizing host; DNA effective to allow the vehicle to be mobilized from the non-C.sub.1 -utilizing host to the C.sub.1 -utilizing host; DNA providing resistance to two antibiotics to which the wild-type C.sub.1 -utilizing host is susceptible, each of the antibiotic resistance markers having a recognition site for a restriction endonuclease; a cos site; and a means for preventing replication in the C.sub.1 -utilizing host. The vehicle is used for complementation mapping as follows. DNA comprising a gene from the C.sub.1 -utilizing organism is inserted at the restriction nuclease recognition site, inactivating the antibiotic resistance marker at that site. The vehicle can then be used to form a cosmid structure to infect the non-C.sub.1 -utilizing (e.g., E. coli) host, and then conjugated with a selected C.sub.1 -utilizing mutant.