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A Bacillus cereus cytolytic determinant, cereolysin AB, which comprises the phospholipase C and sphingomyelinase
M S Gilmore1, A L Cruz-Rodz, M Leimeister-Wächter
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City 73190.
Abstract:
A cloned cytolytic determinant from the genome of Bacillus cereus GP-4 has been characterized at the molecular level. Nucleotide sequence determination revealed the presence of two open reading frames. Both open reading frames were found by deletion and complementation analysis to be necessary for expression of the hemolytic phenotype by Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli hosts. The 5' open reading frame was found to be nearly identical to a recently reported phospholipase C gene derived from a mutant B. cereus strain which overexpresses the respective protein, and it conferred a lecithinase-positive phenotype to the B. subtilis host. The 3' open reading frame encoded a sphingomyelinase. The two tandemly encoded activities, phospholipase C and sphingomyelinase, constitute a biologically functional cytolytic determinant of B. cereus termed cereolysin AB.