Production, Secretion and Biological Activity of Bacillus cereus Enterotoxins 英文参考文献.docVIP

Toxins 2010, 2, 1690-1703; doi:10.3390/toxins2071690 OPEN ACCESS toxins ISSN 2072-6651 /journal/toxins Review Production, Secretion and Biological Activity of Bacillus cereus Enterotoxins Sonia Senesi 1,* and Emilia Ghelardi 2 1 Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, via S. Zeno 37, 56127 Pisa, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Patologia Sperimentale, Biotecnologie Mediche, Infettivologia ed Epidemiologia, University of Pisa, via S. Zeno 37, 56127 Pisa, Italy; E-Mail: ghelardi@biomed.unipi.it * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: ssenesi@biologia.unipi.it; Tel.: +39 050 2213695; Fax: +39 050 2213711. Received: 4 May 2010; in revised form: 14 June 2010 / Accepted: 28 June 2010 / Published: 29 June 2010 Abstract: Bacillus cereus behaves as an opportunistic pathogen frequently causing gastrointestinal diseases, and it is increasingly recognized to be responsible for severe local or systemic infections. Pathogenicity of B. cereus mainly relies on the secretion of a wide array of toxins and enzymes and also on the ability to undergo swarming differentiation in response to surface-sensing. In this report, the pathogenicity exerted by B. cereus toxins is described with particular attention to the regulatory mechanisms of production and secretion of HBL, Nhe and CytK enterotoxins. Keywords: hemolysin BL; non-hemolytic enterotoxin; cytotoxin K; B. cereus 1. Introduction Bacillus cereus is a Gram-positive, spore-bearing rod that is widely distributed in the environment, namely soil, where spores persist under adverse conditions and can grow when readily decomposable matter is available. This motile bacterium is an aerobe or facultative anaerobe with large vegetative cells, typically organized in chains, ranging from 3–5 μm in length and 1 μm in width. B. cereus can grow over a wide temperature range (8–55 °C), but it is not well suited to tolerate low pH values (minimum 5–6) or water co