title: Unexpected genomic relationships between Bacillus anthracis strains from Bangladesh and Central Europe.
abstract: The zoonosis anthrax caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis has a broad geographical distribution. Active enzootic areas are typically located away from central and northern Europe where cases of the disease occur only sporadically and in limited numbers. In contrast, a few out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh are hyper-endemic for anthrax and there the disease causes major losses in live-stock. In this study we genotyped eight strains of B. anthracis collected from the districts of Sirajganj and Tangail in 2013. All these strains belonged to canSNP group A.Br.001/002 Sterne differing only in a few of 31 tandem-repeat (MLVA)-markers. Whole genome sequences were obtained from five of these strains and compared with genomic information of B. anthracis strains originating from various geographical locations. Characteristic signatures were detected defining two "Bangladesh" clusters potentially useful for rapid molecular epidemiology. From this data high-resolution PCR assays were developed and subsequently tested on additional isolates from Bangladesh and Central Europe. Remarkably, this comparative genomic analysis focusing on SNP-discovery revealed a close genetic relationship between these strains from Bangladesh and historic strains collected between 1991 and 2008 in The Netherlands and Germany, respectively. Possible explanations for these phylogenetic relationships are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh; Department of Microbiology & Public Health, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Khanpura, Babugonj, Barisal, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Farzana Islam
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Rume
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Chowdhury Rafiqul
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Ahsan
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology & Veterinary Public Health, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Paritosh Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Mahmuda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yasmin
authors.affiliation: Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Mathias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antwerpen
authors.affiliation: Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: gregorgrass@bundeswehr.org.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grass
authors.affiliation: Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hanczaruk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000881:Anthrax / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000662:veterinary; D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001459:Bangladesh / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
keywords: Bacillus anthracis; Bangladesh; Comparative genomics; High-resolution melting SNP analysis (HRM-SNP); Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP); Whole genome sequencing