Alex R. Hoffmaster1, Jacques Ravel1, David A. Rasko1, Gail D. Chapman1, Michael D. Chute1, Chung K. Marston1, Barun K. De1, Cláudio Tavares Sacchi1, Collette Fitzgerald1, Leonard W. Mayer1, Martin Maiden1, Fergus G. Priest1, Margaret Barker1, Lingxia Jiang1, Regina Z. Cer1, Jennifer Rilstone1, Scott N. Peterson1, Robbin S. Weyant1, Darrell R. Galloway1, Timothy D. Read1, Tanja Popović1, Claire M. Fraser1
1Epidemiologic Investigations Laboratory, Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, MS G34, Atlanta, GA 30333; Microbial Genomics and Pathogen Functional Genomic Resource Center, Institute for Genomic Research, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850; The Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3SY, United Kingdom; School of Life Sciences, Heriot Watt...
Tóm tắt
Bacillus anthracisis the etiologic agent of anthrax, an acute fatal disease among mammals. It was thought to differ fromBacillus cereus, an opportunistic pathogen and cause of food poisoning, by the presence of plasmids pXO1 and pXO2, which encode the lethal toxin complex and the poly-γ-d-glutamic acid capsule, respectively. This work describes a non-B. anthracisisolate that possesses the anthrax toxin genes and is capable of causing a severe inhalation anthrax-like illness. Although initial phenotypic and 16S rRNA analysis identified this isolate asB. cereus, the rapid generation and analysis of a high-coverage draft genome sequence revealed the presence of a circular plasmid, named pBCXO1, with 99.6% similarity with theB. anthracistoxin-encoding plasmid, pXO1. Although homologues of the pXO2 encoded capsule genes were not found, a polysaccharide capsule cluster is encoded on a second, previously unidentified plasmid, pBC218. A/J mice challenged withB. cereusG9241 confirmed the virulence of this strain. These findings represent an example of how genomics could rapidly assist public health experts responding not only to clearly identified select agents but also to novel agents with similar pathogenic potentials. In this study, we combined a public health approach with genome analysis to provide insight into the correlation of phenotypic characteristics and their genetic basis.
