DETECTION OF ENTEROTOXINS PRODUCED BY B. CER-EUS ISOLATES USING MASS SPECTROMETRY

摘要

B. cereus is a foodborne pathogen involved in gastrointestinal outbreaks. The diarrheal type of illness is caused by enterotoxin production from B. cereus cells grown in the small intestine of the host. Characterization of enterotox-ins (CytK and NHE)is critical for successful microbial food safety risk assessment, but -at this moment- we do not possess efficient tools for this purpose. The very popular commercial immunological assays are not very specific and can only detect the NheA component of the tripartite NHE. Thus far, there is no rapid identification method for CytK. We have successfully applied MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) for the study of CytKl and NHE proteins secreted by food poisoning B. cereus strains.