Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax) Resource Guide

Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax) Resource Guide

Welcome to the Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax) Resource Guide.
This guide is intended to be a resource for the Bacillus anthracis research community. The use of Bacillus anthracis as a potential bioweapon has accelerated the race to develop vaccines and antitoxins for this Category A bioterrorism agent as defined by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Exposure to Bacillus anthracis, an endospore-forming Gram-positive bacterium, results in several forms of anthrax poisoning including cutaneous (skin), gastrointestinal and inhalational anthrax. In the anthrax genome, both chromosome and plasmids are responsible for harboring key virulence genes and other pathogenic genes. However, megaplasmids pXO1 with tripartite toxin and pXO2 with poly-D-glutamic acid capsule genes are primarily associated with most virulent Bacillus anthracis strains and lack of either megaplasmid results in either avirulence or reduced virulence.

Latest Bacillus anthracis News

• Latest anthrax news at CIDRAP and MedlinePlus
• Disease outbreak news at WHO
• HHS cancels VaxGen anthrax vaccine contract December 20, 2006, CIDRAP
• Firm delivers 3 million doses of anthrax vaccine to HHS December 18, 2006, FDA News
• Universal Detection Technology receives purchase order for anthrax detection kit from Australian defense firm December 18, 2006, Universal Detection Technology
• CFIA update on the anthrax outbreak November 22, 2006, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• HHS to acquire anthrax immune globulin for stockpile July 28, 2006, HHS
• HHS to buy 20,000 courses of anthrax antitoxin June 20, 2006, CIDRAP
• Vaccine may permit shorter antibiotic course for anthrax May 09, 2006, CIDRAP
• Scientists design potent anthrax toxin inhibitor April 23, 2006, NIH News

Bacillus anthracis Nucleotide and Protein Sequences

Anthrax strain-specific genome and sequence data are available at NCBI and Pathema through provided links. Nucleotide and protein sequences can be retrieved from NCBI using taxonomy ID queries submitted against NCBI's Entrez nucleotide and protein databases. The numbers of nucleotide and protein records returned from these queries are linked to the query results sets at NCBI. Genome-specific information can be explored by following the Strain Name links to the corresponding Genome Pages at Pathema. Available Genome Trace Records can be viewed at NCBI's Taxonomy Browser by the provided Taxonomy ID links for each genome.

Please note: Bacillus anthracis researchers have stated that three pairs of Bacillus anthracis strains in NCBI's Taxonomy database represent the same genome, with str. A0039 = str. Australia 94 (PubMed ID: 15808746), str. A1055 = str. A01055 (personal communication), and str. CNEVA-9066 = str. France (personal communication).