Lineage: Bacteria[3914]; Firmicutes[795]; Bacilli[433]; Bacillales[223]; Bacillaceae[95]; Bacillus[54]; Bacillus cereus group[7]; Bacillus cereus[1] Bacillus cereus. This organism is a soil-dwelling opportunistic pathogen that causes food poisoning in infected individuals. There are two forms of food poisoning that occur, one is rapid onset (emetic) and the other is late onset (diarrheal). The rapid onset is characterized by nausea and vomiting while the late onset is characterized by diarrhea and abdominal pain. The emetic disease is caused by a small stable dodecadepsipeptide cerulide whereas the diarrheal disease is caused by a heat labile enterotoxin. Some strains produce a potent cytotoxin that forms a pore in the membrane of eukaryotic cells and causes necrotic enteritis (death of intestinal epithelial cells) while the unique tripartite membrane lytic toxin hemolysin BL contributes to the diarrheal disease and destructive infections of the eye. Genetic and genomic analyses have revealed that Bacillus cereus is very similar to Bacillus anthracis and that some strains have plasmids resembling the toxin plasmids of Bacillus anthracis. [Source: NCBI Genome ]