Query: NC_011658:5239509 Bacillus cereus AH187 chromosome, complete genome
Lineage: Bacillus cereus; Bacillus; Bacillaceae; Bacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was isolated from the vomit of a person having eaten cooked rice by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), London, UK. The isolate was associated with an emetic outbreak in 1972. This organism is a soil-dwelling opportunistic pathogen that causes food poisoning in infected individuals. The rapid onset is characterized by nausea and vomiting while the late onset is characterized by diarrhea and abdominal pain. The emetic disease is caused by a small stable dodecadepsipeptide cerulide whereas the diarrheal disease is caused by a heat labile enterotoxin. Some strains produce a potent cytotoxin that forms a pore in the membrane of eukaryotic cells and causes necrotic enteritis (death of intestinal epithelial cells) while the unique tripartite membrane lytic toxin hemolysin BL contributes to the diarrheal disease and destructive infections of the eye.
Subject: NC_008525:664500 Pediococcus pentosaceus ATCC 25745, complete genome
Lineage: Pediococcus pentosaceus; Pediococcus; Lactobacillaceae; Lactobacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Use in fermentation of food products. A distinctive characteristic of pediococci is their ability to form tetrads via cell division in two perpendicular directions in a single plane. Like other lactic acid bacteria, species of Pediococcus are acid tolerant, cannot synthesize porphyrins, and possess a strictly fermentative (homofermentative) facultatively anaerobic metabolism with lactic acid as the major metabolic end product. They also occur in such food products as cured meat, raw sausages, and marinated fish, and are are used for biotechnological processing and preservation of foods. This bacterium can be isolated from a variety of plant materials and bacterial-ripened cheeses. This organism is used as an acid producing starter culture in the fermentation of some sausages, cucumbers, green beans, soy milk, and silage. Some strains have been reported to contain several (3-5) resident plasmids that render the bacterium capable of fermenting some sugars (raffinose, melibiose, and sucrose), as well as producing bacteriocins.