Progress in Food-related Research Focussing on Bacillus cereus

Abstract

Bacillus cereus is a gram-positive, rod-shaped, endospore-forming bacterium that occurs ubiquitously and is frequently isolated from soil and food products. When B. cereus is present in foods, it can cause spoilage and poisoning. The work of our group is focussed on several properties of B. cereus that are of key importance in the food-industry, e. g. sporulation, spore properties, biofilm formation and stress response. This review describes our progress and current research with B. cereus isolates from natural and industrial sources that will utilize the fully sequenced and annotated genome of the model strain, B. cereus ATCC 14579. © 2004, Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology & The Japanese Society of Soil Microbiology. All rights reserved.