BioProject

The advent of massively parallel whole genome sequencing provides an opportunity to get detailed insight into the genetic diversity and population structure of monomorphic pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis. More...

The advent of massively parallel whole genome sequencing provides an opportunity to get detailed insight into the genetic diversity and population structure of monomorphic pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis. Here we report the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to characterize fourteen B. anthracis strains isolated in two European wool factories processing goat and sheep raw wool from various regions of the Middle East and northern Asia. Comparative analyses were carried out using a total of eighteen genomes affiliated to the A.Br.Vollum lineage. The 745 chromosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) defining the phylogenetic relationships existing between these strains split the A.Br.Vollum lineage into five different branches. The fourteen strains from wool processing facilities clustered into three of these branches that are distinct from the branch of the terminal reference strain A0488 of lineage A.Br.Vollum. Six SNPs, representative of these phylogenetic sub-groups, were selected and developed into high-resolution melting SNP discriminatory assays. Whole-genome SNP analysis placed the recently published strain H9401 in a distinct evolutionarily lineage that is basal to A.Br.Vollum. A NGS dataset of 14 strains that originate from Middle East and North Asia affiliated to the A.Br.Vollum lineage provides new insight into the substructure of this lineage. Novel analytic methods specific to the A.Br.Vollum lineage were developed for the purpose of rapid molecular epidemiology. Less...