Bacteria Genomes - BACILLUS ANTHRACIS

Bacillus anthracis is very large, Gram-positive, spore-forming rod, genotypically and phenotypically it is very similar to Bacillus cereus , Bacillus thuringiensis, and Bacillus lepidoptera . The three species have the same cellular size and morphology and form oval spores located centrally in a non-swollen sporangium.

The anthrax bacillus, Bacillus anthracis, was the first bacterium shown to be the cause of a disease. In 1877, Robert Koch grew the organism in pure culture, demonstrated its ability to form endospores, and produced experimental anthrax by injecting it into animals.

Anthrax is primarily a disease of domesticated and wild animals. In humans, anthrax is fairly rare; the risk of infection is about 1/100,000. The most common form of the disease in humans is cutaneous anthrax, which is usually acquired via injured skin or mucous membranes. Inhalation anthrax results most commonly from inhalation of spore-containing dust where animal hair or hides are being handled. The disease begins abruptly with high fever and chest pain. It progresses rapidly to a systemic hemorrhagic pathology and is often fatal if treatment cannot stop the invasive aspect of the infection.

Prompted by the Florida anthrax attack in 2001, scientists have compared the completely sequenced genome of the anthrax bacterium with the genomes of two close relatives, and found four DNA differences between the isolates and identified dozens of genomic landmarks that can be used to classify isolates in the future for potential vaccine and drug targets.

References:

Nature 423:81-86(2003)
http://www.bact.wisc.edu/Bact330/lectureanthrax
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/anthrax_g.htm
http://gnn.tigr.org/sequenced_genomes/genome_guide_p1.shtml#bacianth