Comparative sequence analysis of B. anthracis Ames Ancestor and a set of diverse B. anthracis strains.

May 16, 2006

The NIAID sponsored Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center (PFGRC) (NIAID contract N01-AI-15447) and the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant 0202304) have funded a study on the comparative sequence analysis of several strains of Bacillus anthracis. The complete genome sequence of B. anthracis Ames Ancestor and high quality draft genome sequence of six diverse B. anthracis strains were determined by whole genome shotgun sequencing. A pipeline was developed (Rasko et al) utilizing MUMmer software to compare, pair wise, the nucleotide sequences of the Ames Ancestor strain with each of the B. anthracis strains in order to identify all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In collaboration with the NIAID sponsored Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC) at TIGR.