Bacillus cereus
Species of bacterium / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Bacillus cereus?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Bacillus cereus is a Gram-positive rod-shaped bacterium commonly found in soil, food, and marine sponges.[1] The specific name, cereus, meaning "waxy" in Latin, refers to the appearance of colonies grown on blood agar. Some strains are harmful to humans and cause foodborne illness due to their spore-forming nature, while other strains can be beneficial as probiotics for animals, and even exhibit mutualism with certain plants.[2][3][4] B. cereus bacteria may be aerobes or facultative anaerobes, and like other members of the genus Bacillus, can produce protective endospores. They have a wide range of virulence factors, including phospholipase C, cereulide, sphingomyelinase, metalloproteases, and cytotoxin K, many of which are regulated via quorum sensing.[5][6] B. cereus strains exhibit flagellar motility.[7]
Bacillus cereus | |
---|---|
B. cereus colonies on a sheep-blood agar plate | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Bacteria |
Phylum: | Bacillota |
Class: | Bacilli |
Order: | Bacillales |
Family: | Bacillaceae |
Genus: | Bacillus |
Species: | B. cereus |
Binomial name | |
Bacillus cereus Frankland & Frankland 1887 | |
Biovars | |
The Bacillus cereus group comprises seven closely related species: B. cereus sensu stricto (referred to herein as B. cereus), B. anthracis, B. thuringiensis, B. mycoides, B. pseudomycoides, and B. cytotoxicus;[8] or as six species in a Bacillus cereus sensu lato: B. weihenstephanensis, B. mycoides, B. pseudomycoides, B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, and B. anthracis.[9] A phylogenomic analysis combined with average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis revealed that the B. anthracis species also includes strains annotated as B. cereus and B. thuringiensis.[10]