Bacteria Genomes - BACILLUS ANTHRACIS
Bacillus anthracis is a pathogenic bacteria that causes anthrax
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
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