ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2015
Massive horizontal gene transfer, strictly vertical inheritance and ancient duplications differentially shape the evolution of Bacillus cereus enterotoxin operons hbl, cytK and nhe.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 118 citations in OpenAlex.
- Urban-Adjacent Soils as a Global Reservoir of Toxigenic and Antimicrobial-ResistantInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Incidence of toxigenic Bacillus cereus in ready-to-eat fermented foods in Osogbo, Nigeria: a potential health risk.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Specialized aldo-keto reductases trigger complete degradation of mycotoxin deoxynivalenol.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Characterization of Infant Formulae Marketed in Italy and Virulence Potential ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The major toxins of Bacillus cereus - Current knowledge on distribution, regulation and mechanism of action.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- Integrated Genomic and Phenotypic Analysis ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Genomic description ofmSystems · 2025Article
- Genomic and Transcriptomic Profiling ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Discovery and expression of insecticidal proteins via genome mining of novelFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Phenotypic and Genomic Insights Into Bacillus spp. and Peribacillus spp. of Spanish Olive Groves With Biotechnological Potential.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Article
- Characterization of theFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Evaluating the Safety ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Emergence of multidrug-resistant Bacillus spp. derived from animal feed, food and human diarrhea in South-Eastern Bangladesh.BMC microbiology · 2024Article
- Get to Know Your Neighbors: Characterization of CloseMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- DNA Nanomachine (DNM) Biplex Assay for DifferentiatingInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Bacilli in the International Space Station.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Prevalence and characterization of toxigenicFood science and biotechnology · 2022Article
- Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBacillus cereus sensu lato comprises eight closely related species including the human pathogens Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus. Within B. cereus sensu lato, chromosomally and plasmid-encoded toxins exist. While plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer of the emetic toxin, anthrax and insecticidal toxins is known, evolution of enterotoxin genes within the group has not been studied.
resultsWe report draft genome assemblies of 25 strains, a phylogenetic network of 142 strains based on ANI derived from genome sequences and a phylogeny based on whole-genome SNP analysis. The data clearly support subdivision of B. cereus sensu lato into seven phylogenetic groups. While group I, V and VII represent B. pseudomycoides, B. toyonensis and B. cytotoxicus, which are distinguishable at species level (ANI border ≥ 96 %), strains ascribed to the other five species do not match phylogenic groups. The chromosomal enterotoxin operons nheABC and hblCDAB are abundant within B. cereus both isolated from infections and from the environment. While the duplicated hbl variant hbl a is present in 22 % of all strains investigated, duplication of nheABC is extremely rare (0.02 %) and appears to be phylogenetically unstable. Distribution of toxin genes was matched to a master tree based on seven concatenated housekeeping genes, which depicts species relationships in B. cereus sensu lato as accurately as whole-genome comparisons. Comparison to the phylogeny of enterotoxin genes uncovered ample evidence for horizontal transfer of hbl, cytK and plcR, as well as frequent deletion of both toxins and duplication of hbl. No evidence for nhe deletion was found and stable horizontal transfer of nhe is rare. Therefore, evolution of B. cereus enterotoxin operons is shaped unexpectedly different for yet unknown reasons.
conclusionsFrequent exchange of the pathogenicity factors hbl, cytK and plcR in B. cereus sensu lato appears to be an important mechanism of B. cereus virulence evolution, including so-called probiotic or non-pathogenic species, which might have consequences for risk assessment procedures. In contrast, exclusively vertical inheritance of nhe was observed, and since nhe-negative strains appear to be extremely rare, we suggest that fitness loss may be associated with deletion or horizontal transfer of the nhe operon.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.