| Species/Subspecies: | Bacillus cereus | |||||||||
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| Categories: | Causes hemolysis; spore forming; motile | |||||||||
| Etymology: | Genus name: small rod Species epithet: wax colored | |||||||||
| Significance: | [Very important] | |||||||||
| Taxonomy: | Class Bacilli Order Bacillales Family Bacillaceae Genus Bacillus |
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| Type Strain: | ATCC 14579 = CCUG 7414 = NCTC 2599 | |||||||||
| Macromorphology (smell):
| Large, opaque, grey-yellow, granular, flat colonies (diameter 5-10 mm). Most strains produce a clear broad zone of hemolysis on blood agar. | |||||||||
| Micromorphology:
| Large (1 x 5-10 µm) motile rods, centrally located endospores can sometimes be seen as uncolored regions after Gram staining of cells from older cultures. May form spores. | |||||||||
| Gram +/Gram -: | G+ (Cells from older cultures can appear as G - because the cell wall degenerates) | |||||||||
| Metabolism: | Facultatively anaerobic | |||||||||
| Catalase/Oxidase: | +/- | |||||||||
| Other Enzymes: | Lecithinase + | |||||||||
| Fermentation of carbohydrates: | D-glucose + lactose - maltose + L-rhamnose - sucrose v L-arabinose - cellobiose v D-mannitol - salicin (+) trehalose + glycerol + inulin - raffinose - D-sorbitol - starch (+) |
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| Spec. Char.: | ||||||||||
| Special Media:
| MYP agar is often used for confirmation of suspected B. cereus colonies from food samples. | |||||||||
| Disease: |
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| Genome Sequence: |
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| 16S rRNA Seq.: |
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| Taxonomy/phylogeny:
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About 250 species have been described within the genus Bacillus. B. cereus is very closely related to Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus thuringiensis. | |||||||||
| Comment: | Spore forming. | |||||||||
| Reference(s): | No. 111 | |||||||||
| Updated: | 2023-03-08 |