Germination of Bacillus cereus spores is induced by germinants for differentiated caco-2 cells, a human cell line mimicking the epithelial cells of the small intestine

The germination induction upon adhesion to caco-2 cells in 11 enterotoxigenic strains of Bacillus cereus was investigated. It was found that spores of the 11 strains of Bacillus cereus adhered with similar efficiencies to Caco-2 cells, Hep-2 cells did not trigger germination and spores of all strains displayed similar germination efficiencies.