Bacillus cereus and its food poisoning toxins
Posted by ajcann on May 14, 2008
Bacillus cereus is widespread in nature and frequently isolated from soil and growing plants, but it is also well adapted for growth in the intestinal tract of insects and mammals. From these habitats it is easily spread to foods, where it may cause an emetic or a diarrhoeal type of food-associated illness that is becoming increasingly important in the industrialized world. The emetic disease is a food intoxication caused by cereulide, a small ring-formed peptide. Similar to the virulence determinants that distinguish Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus anthracis from B. cereus, the genetic determinants of cereulide are plasmid-borne.
The diarrhoeal syndrome of B. cereus is an infection caused by vegetative cells, ingested as viable cells or spores, thought to produce protein enterotoxins in the small intestine. Three pore-forming cytotoxins have been associated with diarrhoeal disease. This review focuses on the toxins associated with foodborne diseases frequently caused by B. cereus. The disease characteristics are described, and recent findings regarding the associated toxins are discussed, as well as the present knowledge on virulence regulation.
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