Bacterial activity is one of the factors to determine the maturity and quality of the composts. In order to have a better understanding of the composition of bacteria involving in the composting processes, the facultative thermophilic bacrerial community of local composts was analyzed. A total of 412 colonies were isolated and analyzed by amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and traditional colony observation, staining and biochemical tests. The isolates were divided into 24 groups

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... by ARDRA. Among these groups, the largest one contained 137 isolates. Mostly, the ARDRA analysis was in good conformity with the analysis of traditional methods: both results indicated that group 17 was a distinct one. The phylogenetic tree constructed based on the 16S rDNA sequence analysis demonstrated that the bacterial community of composts analyzed in this study was dominated by Bacillus spp., closely related to Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus sonorensis. Only 16 isolates in group 17 were Pseudomonas spp., closely related to Pseudomonas stutzer.