Although thermophilic members of the genus Bacillus are known to tolerate extreme environmental conditions, they appeared to be readily damaged upon mechanical manipulations. This fact was evidenced in genotyping of some strains of thermophilic Bacillus by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Consequently, a new procedure for the preparation of agarose plugs was developed. The procedure produced interpretable genomic DNA restriction profiles.
