Bacillus cereus cshA Is Expressed during the Lag Phase of Growth and Serves as a Potential Marker of Early Adaptation to Low Temperature and pH

Bacterial adaptation is characterized by a lag phase during which cells do not multiply or modify their physiology to cope with the constraints of their environment. Our aim was to determine a sequence of events during the lag phase of growth at low temperature and pH for three Bacillus cereus strains. The onsets of expression of two genes, one of which is essential for stress adaptation (cshA, coding for a RNA helicase) and one of which is involved in the transition between lag phase and exponential phase (abrB, coding for a transition regulator), were determined using fluorescent transcriptional reporter systems. Regardless of the stressing conditions and the tested strains, the cshA promoter was active very early, while the biomass increased and always did so before the first cell division. At 12°C and pH 7.0, the onset of cshA promoter activity occurred at between 3 h and 7 h, while the bacterial counts started to increase at between 12 h and 13 h. At pH 5.0 and at 20°C or 30°C, the onset of cshA promoter activity occurred before 1 h and earlier than at pH 7.0. In contrast, the onset of abrB promoter activity depended on the strain and the stressing conditions. In the ATCC 14579 strain, the onset of abrB promoter activity always started at between 30 min and 3 h, before biomass increased and cell division occurred. For the other strains, it took place along with the first cell division at 12°C but did so much later during growth under the other tested conditions. IMPORTANCE The spore-forming bacterium B. cereus is a major cause of foodborne outbreaks in Europe. Some B. cereus strains can grow at low temperatures and low pH in many processed foods. Modeling of the bacterial lag time is hampered by a lack of knowledge of the timing of events occurring during this phase. In this context, the identification of lag phase markers, not currently available, could be a real advance for the better prediction of lag time duration. Currently, no molecular markers of this phase are available. By determining that cshA was always expressed early during the lag phase, we provide a molecular marker of the early adaptation process of B. cereus cells when exposed to low temperature and pH.