Characterization of the chemotaxis fliY and cheA genes in Bacillus cereus

This paper describes the first identification of chemotaxis genes in Bacillus cereus. We sequenced and studied the genomic organization and the expression of the cheA and fliY genes in two different B. cereus strains, ATCC 14579 and ATCC 10987. While cheA encodes a highly conserved protein acting as the main regulator of the chemotactic response in flagellated eubacteria, fliY, which has been previously described only in B. subtilis, is one of the three genes encoding proteins of the flagellar switch complex. Although the sequences and relative position of cheA and fliY were found to be identical in the two B. cereus strains analyzed, the restriction fragment containing both genes was located differently on the physical maps of B. cereus ATCC 14579 and ATCC 10987. Evidence is shown that the genomic organization and the expression of fliY and cheA in B. cereus differ significantly from that described for B. subtilis, which is considered a model microorganism for chemotaxis in Gram-positive bacteria.