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. 2022 Oct 5;22(1):240.
doi: 10.1186/s12866-022-02652-5.

Genomic characterization of Bacillus cereus sensu stricto 3A ES isolated from eye shadow cosmetic products

Nadine Yossa  1 , Rebecca Bell  2 , Sandra Tallent  2 , Eric Brown  2 , Rachel Binet  2 , Thomas Hammack  2
Affiliations

Genomic characterization of Bacillus cereus sensu stricto 3A ES isolated from eye shadow cosmetic products

Nadine Yossa et al. BMC Microbiol. .

Abstract

Background: The Bacillus cereus group, also known as B. cereus sensu lato (s.l.) contains ubiquitous spore-forming bacteria found in the environment including strains from the B. cereus sensu stricto (s.s.) species. They occur naturally in a wide range of raw materials and in consumer products. Characterizing isolates that have survived in consumer products allows us to better understand the mechanisms that permit spores to persist and potentially cause illness. Here we characterize the draft genome sequence of B. cereus s. s. 3A-ES, originally isolated from eye shadow and since investigated in several cosmetic studies and compared it to other top ten published complete genome sequences of B. cereus s.l. members.

Results: The draft genome sequence of B. cereus s.s. 3A ES consisted of an average of 90 contigs comprising approximately 5,335,727 bp and a GC content of 34,988%, and with 5509 predicted coding sequences. Based on the annotation statistics and comparison to other genomes within the same species archived in the Pathosystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC), this genome "was of good quality. Annotation of B. cereus s.s. 3A ES revealed a variety of subsystem features, virulence factors and antibiotic resistant genes. The phylogenetic analysis of ten B. cereus group members showed B. cereus s.s. 3A-ES to be a closely related homolog of B. cereus s.s. ATCC 14,579, an established reference strain that is not adapted for cosmetic microbiological studies. Survival of 3A-ES in eye shadow could be linked to predicted stress-response genes and strengthened by additional stress-response genes such as VanB-type, VanRB, CAT15/16, BcrA, BcrB, Lsa(B), and recA that are lacking in B. cereus s.s. ATCC 14,579.

Conclusion: Our genomic analysis of B. cereus s.s. 3A-ES revealed genes, which may allow this bacterium to withstand the action of preservatives and inhibitors in cosmetics, as well as virulence factors that could contribute to its pathogenicity. Having a well-characterized strain obtained from eye-shadow may be useful for establishing a reference strain for cosmetics testing.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus; Complete genome sequence; Cosmetics; Resistant genes; Virulence factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Circular display of the distribution of the draft genome annotations in B. cereus s.s. 3A ES. From the outer to the inner rings, this display includes: the contigs, coding sequences (CDS) on the forward (FWD) strand, CDS on the reverse (REV) strand, RNA genes, CDS with homology to known antimicrobial resistance genes, CDS with homology to known virulence factors, GC content and GC skew. The colors of the CDS on the forward and reverse strand should have indicated to which subsystem (see Fig. 2) these genes belong
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overview of subsystems within the B. cereus s.s. 3A-ES genome
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Phylogenetic tree constructed based on the homologous genomes of NCBI’ s high quality and of PATRIC’ reference and representative genomes. B. cereus s.s
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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