Nucleotide polymorphism assay for the identification of west African group Bacillus anthracis: a lineage lacking anthrose
Abstract
The exosporium of the anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis endospores display a tetrasaccharide composed of three rhamnose residues and an unusual sugar termed anthrose. Anthrose is a proposed potential target for immunotherapy and for specific detection of B. anthracis. Although originally thought to be ubiquitous in B. anthracis, previous work identified an anthrose negative strain from a West African lineage isolated from cattle that could represent a vaccine escape mutant. These strains carry genes required for expression of the anthrose operon but premature stop codons resulting from an 8-bp insertion in BAS3320 (an amino-transferase) and a C/T substitution at position 892 of the BAS3321 (a glycosyltransferase) gene prevent anthrose expression. Various other single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified throughout the operon and could be the basis for detection of anthrose-deficient strains.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 07, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1186/s12866-019-1693-2
Entities
People
- Berzhan Kurmanov
- Diansy Zincke
- Jason K Blackburn
- Michael H Norris
- Ted L. Hadfield
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- National Institutes of Health