Bacillus cereus Food-Borne Disease

Abstract Bacillus cereus is ubiquitous in nature and is found on soil, on plants, and in the enteric tract of insects and mammals. From these niches it is easily spread to food products, causing an emetic or diarrheal syndrome. The former is due to cereulide, a small toxin whose genetic determinants are plasmid borne. The diarrheal syndrome is instead caused by vegetative cells, ingested in the form of spores of viable cells, that are thought to produce protein enterotoxins in the small gut. Pathogenesis of the diarrheal disease relies on three pore-forming cytotoxins, which are nonhemolytic enterotoxin (Nhe), hemolysin BL (Hbl), and cytotoxin K. Nhe and Hbl are homologous three-component toxins related to the toxin cytolysin A of Escherichia coli .