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Identification of Clinical Isolates of the Bacillus cereus Group and Their Characterization by Mass Spectrometry and Electron Microscopy

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Abstract—Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming bacterium found in the environment mainly in soil. Bacillus spores are known to be extremely resistant not only to environmental factors, but also to various sanitation regimes. This leads to spore contamination of toxin-producing strains in hospital and food equipment and, therefore, poses a great threat to human health. Two clinical isolates identified as B. cereus and B. cytotoxicus were used in the present work. It was shown that their calcium ion content was significantly lower than that of the reference strains. According to electron microscopy, one of the SRCC 19/16 isolates has an enlarged exosporium, and the SRCC 1208 isolate has large electron-dense inclusions of an unclear nature during sporulation. We can assume that these contain a biologically active component with a cytotoxic effect and possibly play a role in pathogenesis. Comparative chemical, biochemical, physiological, and ultrastructural analysis of spores of clinical isolates and reference strains of B. cereus was performed. The results we obtained deepen our understanding of the properties of spores that contribute to the increased pathogenicity of B. cereus group species.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to Moiseenko A.V. for technical support, as well as Rubtsov A.V., Rubtsova K.V. and Zolotukhin M.S. for help in preparing the publication. The authors also express their gratitude to the Center for High Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine of the IMB RAS for the provided computing power and methods for data analysis.

Part of the work was performed on the equipment of the Genome Central Collective Use Center of the IMB RAS (http://www.eimb.ru/RUSSIAN_NEW/INSTITUTE/ccu_ genome_c.php).

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Contract in the electronic budget system no. 075-10-2021-113, project ID: RF----193021X0001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, 123098, Moscow, Russia

    T. A. Smirnova, N. B. Polyakov, A. I. Solovyev, N. V. Shevlyagina, S. G. Andreevskaya, D. N. Shcherbinin, Z. S. Plieva, V. A. Kozlova, A. A. Pereborova, I. A. Bogdanov, D. A. Grumov, M. V. Zubasheva & V. G. Zhukhovitsky

  2. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334, Moscow, Russia

    N. B. Polyakov & A. A. Grechnikov

  3. Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    D. S. Karpov

  4. Nanopromimport LLC, Moscow State University Science Park, 119234, Moscow, Russia

    I. A. Bogdanov

  5. State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation, Institute of Bio-Medical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, 123007, Moscow, Russia

    S. V. Poddubko

  6. Ryzhikh State Research Center of Coloproctology, Ministry of Public Health, 123423, Moscow, Russia

    M. A. Sukhina

  7. Russian Medical Academy of Continuing Professional Education (RMANPO), Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, 125993, Moscow, Russia

    V. G. Zhukhovitsky

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  1. T. A. Smirnova
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  2. N. B. Polyakov
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Correspondence to N. B. Polyakov.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving humans or animals as research subjects.

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Abbreviations: MALDI-TOF, matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization–time of flight; TEM, transmission electron microscopy; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; SEM-EDR, scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray analysis; MLSA, multilocus sequence analysis; AFLP, amplified fragment length polymorphism.

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Smirnova, T.A., Polyakov, N.B., Karpov, D.S. et al. Identification of Clinical Isolates of the Bacillus cereus Group and Their Characterization by Mass Spectrometry and Electron Microscopy. Mol Biol 57, 604–615 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026893323040167

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