Figure 4. Comparative analyses of the bacillaene gene cluster between B. subtilis 168 (Bs), Bacillus #9 (B9) and Bacillus #11 (B11).

Sixteen genes code for the pks gene complex involved in bacillaene A (1) biosynthesis, and these are acpK, pksA, pksB, pksC, pksD, pksE, pksF, pksG, pksH, pksI, pksJ, pksL, pksM, pksN, pksR and pksS³⁶. The gene cluster was identified on a single contig in both #9 and #11. The figure shows a bp-scale bar of the ca. 80 kb gene cluster (top) together with a diagram of the orientation of the genes (bottom) in each of the three genomes. Pairwise comparisons (coloured bars) indicate comparable identities between the termite-associated strains and B. subtilis, showing that the two termite strains are more similar (almost identical) to each other across the entire gene cluster.