Rapid and quantitative detection of viable emetic Bacillus cereus by PMA-qPCR assay in milk

Emetic Bacillus cereus is one of the causative agents of foodborne diseases which can cause vomiting-type food poisoning after ingestion of contaminated food. To minimize B. cereus food poisoning, propidium monoazide (PMA) combined with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) called PMA-qPCR was applied for detecting viable emetic B. cereus in milk. The cereulide synthetase gene of emetic B. cereus (cesB) was chosen for the primer, and PMA treatment was optimized at 3 μg/mL to inhibit the PCR amplification of DNA from dead cells. Under optimized assay parameters, the limit of detection (LOD) using this method were 102 CFU/mL in both pure culture and in spiked milk matrix. The cycle threshold (Ct) values obtained for this assay was not significantly affected by the presence of non-target bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7 which indicated the high selectivity of the assay for emetic B. cereus. The PMA-qPCR assay used in this study has the potential for sensitive detection of viable emetic B. cereus in milk.