Institute of Functional Microbiology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Vienna, Austria.
Front Microbiol. 2013 Feb 22;4:32. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00032. eCollection 2013.
The highly heterogeneous genus Bacillus comprises the largest species group of endospore forming bacteria. Because of their ubiquitous nature, Bacillus spores can enter food production at several stages resulting in significant economic losses and posing a potential risk to consumers due the capacity of certain Bacillus strains for toxin production. In the past, food microbiological diagnostics was focused on the determination of species using conventional culture-based methods, which are still widely used. However, due to the extreme intra-species diversity found in the genus Bacillus, DNA-based identification and typing methods are gaining increasing importance in routine diagnostics. Several studies showed that certain characteristics are rather strain-dependent than species-specific. Therefore, the challenge for current and future Bacillus diagnostics is not only the efficient and accurate identification on species level but also the development of rapid methods to identify strains with specific characteristics (such as stress resistance or spoilage potential), trace contamination sources, and last but not least discriminate potential hazardous strains from non-toxic strains.
高度异质的芽孢杆菌属包含最大的内生孢子形成细菌物种组。由于它们无处不在的性质，芽孢杆菌孢子可以在食品生产的几个阶段进入，导致重大的经济损失，并由于某些芽孢杆菌菌株产生毒素的能力对消费者构成潜在风险。过去，食品微生物学诊断侧重于使用传统的基于培养的方法来确定物种，这些方法仍然被广泛使用。然而，由于芽孢杆菌属内存在极端的种内多样性，基于 DNA 的鉴定和分型方法在常规诊断中越来越重要。有几项研究表明，某些特征与其说是种特异性的，不如说是菌株依赖性的。因此，当前和未来芽孢杆菌诊断的挑战不仅是在种水平上进行高效和准确的鉴定，而且还在于开发快速方法来鉴定具有特定特征（如抗应激能力或腐败潜力）的菌株、追踪污染来源，最后但并非最不重要的是区分潜在危险菌株和非毒性菌株。
