title: Detection and phylogenic analysis of one anthrax virulence plasmid pXO1 conservative open reading frame ubiquitous presented within Bacillus cereus group strains.
abstract: The presence of one of the anthrax virulence plasmid pXO1 conserved fragments was analyzed in 24 Bacillus cereus and B. thuringiensis strains, including 6 B. thuringiensis subspecies, by polymerase chain reactions. Twelve out of 24 strains showed PCR-positive for an ORF101 homologous sequence. Two pXO1-ORF101-like fragments from a B. cereus B-4ac and a commercial B. thuringiensis kurstaki HD1 were cloned, sequenced and expressed in Escherichia coli. Toxicity assays revealed that the product encoded by the pXO1-ORF101-like fragment had no impact on either Vero cells or Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, suggesting that this fragment probably not contribute to enterotoxic activity. Sequence alignment of the pXO1-ORF101 from three Bacillus anthracis and ORF101-like fragments from other 12 B. cereus group isolates indicated high identity (more than 90%) and the presence of subgroup- and strain-specific SNPs among these fragments.
authors.affiliation: Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Science, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Xiaomin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Bjarne Munk
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Niels Bohse
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Hendriksen
authors.forename: Zhiming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D014764:Viral Proteins