We developed predictive growth models for Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus on various food matrices consisting primarily of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods. A cocktail of three S. aureus strains, producing enterotoxins A, C, and D, or a B. cereus strain, were inoculated on sliced bread, cooked rice, boiled Chinese noodles, boiled bean sprouts, tofu, baked fish, smoked chicken, and baked hambu...

Growth and germination of vegetative cells and endospores of Bacillus cereus were affected by Streptococcus lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus in nonfat milk medium and by salts of organic acids in broth medium. Growth of the lactic acid bacteria was not affected by B. cereus. B. cereus increased rapidly to about 10 CFU/ml when cells were...

The outcome of an interaction between plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and plants may depend on the chemical composition of root exudates (REs). We report the colonization of tobacco, and not groundnut, roots by a non-rhizospheric Bacillus cereus (MTCC 430). There was a differential alteration in the cell wall components of B. cereus in response to the REs from tobacco and groundnut. Attenu...

Bacillus species (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus clausii, Bacillus pumilus) carried in five commercial probiotic products consisting of bacterial spores were characterized for potential attributes (colonization, immunostimulation, and antimicrobial activity) that could account for their claimed probiotic properties. Three B. cereus strains were shown to persist in the mouse gastrointestinal tract fo...

Cereulide-producing Bacillus cereus isolates can cause serious emetic (vomiting) syndrome and even acute lethality. As mobile genetic elements, the exploration of prophages derived from emetic B. cereus isolates will help in our understanding of the genetic diversity and evolution of these pathogens. In this study, five temperate phages derived from cereulide-producing B. cereus strains were in...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Bacillus cereus is one of the pathogens responsible for human diarrhoea, mainly due to consumption of contaminated food. The present study was undertaken to determine the occurrence of B. cereus among diarrhoeal patients and its phenotypic and genetic characteristics that determine the virulence and clonal features. METHODS Stool specimens were collected for two years ...

BACKGROUND Upper airway epithelial cells produce bactericidal nitric oxide (NO) in response to both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Our previous work demonstrated that T2R38, a bitter taste receptor (T2R) expressed in airway epithelium, produces NO in response to quorum-sensing molecules secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We also demonstrated that Staphylococci products elicit an NO ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent blood-retinal barrier (BRB) permeability occurred during experimental Bacillus cereus endophthalmitis and whether tight junction alterations were involved in permeability. METHODS Mice were intravitreally injected with 100 colony-forming units of B. cereus, and eyes were analyzed at specific times after infection for permeabili...

Background: Bacillus cereus is one of the important agents of the food-borne diseases worldwide. In the present study, the dried vegetable samples distributed in Tehran, Iran were evaluated in order to isolation, identification, and enumeration of B. cereus. Methods: A total of 140 samples containing open and packed dried vegetables were randomly purchased from different areas of Tehran, Iran ...

The simplex real-time PCR assays based on the TaqMan probe and SYBR green I， which target cereulide synthetase genes (ces genes) were used for rapidly, reliably and sensitively identifying the emetic strains from among Bacillus cereus strains isolated from different sources. Only the emetic strains showed positive reactions to the real-time PCR assays, but all examined strains of diarrheal B. c...