Burkholderia thailandensis is a nonfermenting motile, Gram-negative bacillus that occurs naturally in soil.

[9][10][11] B. thailandensis does not require biosafety category 3 facilities and is not considered a biosecurity threat, which makes it easier to study and to work with.

[12] Burkholderia thailandensis has secondary products that play an essential role in the ecology of soil bacteria.

Research suggests that as in other bacteria, small non coding RNAs play a role in response to the environmental and stress conditions like antibiotic exposure and survival in a host-specific environment.

[14] Several small RNA have been discovered in B. thailandenisis: BHT_s1 and BHT_s39 exhibit differential expression profiles dependent on growth phase and cell stimuli, such as antibiotics and serum.