Cytotoxicity in Bacillus mojavensis is abolished following loss of surfactin synthesis: implications for assessment of toxicity and food poisoning potential

Bacillus subtilis and the closely related species Bacillus pumilus and Bacillus licheniformis have periodically been suggested to play a role in the aetiology of food poisoning despite the fact that the organisms do not possess the genes associated with enteropathogenicity in Bacillus cereus. We show here that Bacillus mojavensis, an organism closely related to B. subtilis, is able to produce toxic components which identify as a complex of three different surfactin analogues. These cyclic lipopeptides were soluble in methanol, heat stable after treatment in a boiling water bath for 10 min, resistant to enzymatic degradation by pepsin, trypsin, endoprotease V8 and proteinase K and formed pores in planar lipid bilayers. They were cytotoxic when tested in a series of commonly used laboratory cytotoxicity assays, namely, lactate dehydrogenase release, haemolysis, inhibition of both protein synthesis in Vero cells and motility in boar sperm. We show that such in vitro markers of enterotoxicity are due entirely to production of cyclic lipopeptides since deletion of sfp, a gene essential for surfactin synthesis which abolished the cytotoxicity to Vero cells, boar sperm motility and haemolytic activity. Thus, the relevance of cyclic lipopeptides as food poisoning toxins needs to be evaluated in assays other than the cell cytotoxicity assays in common use.