This content will become publicly available on January 24, 2021
Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis lose their ability to rapidly grow and sporulate compared to wildlife outbreak strains
Abstract
Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax in animals and humans. The organism lies in a dormant state in the soil until introduced into an animal via, ingestion, cutaneous inoculation or inhalation. Once in the host, spores germinate into rapidly growing vegetative cells elaborating toxins. When animals die of anthrax, vegetative bacteria sporulate upon nutrient limitation in the carcass or soil while in the presence of air. After release into the soil environment, spores form a localized infectious zone (LIZ) at and around the carcass. Laboratory strains of B. anthracis produce fewer proteins associated with growth and sporulation compared to wild strains isolated from recent zoonotic disease events. We verified wild strains grow more rapidly than lab strains demonstrating a greater responsiveness to nutrient availability. Sporulation was significantly more rapid in these wild strains compared to lab strains, indicating wild strains are able to sporulate faster due to nutrient limitation while laboratory strains have a decrease in the speed at which they utilize nutrients and an increase in time to sporulation. These findings have implications for disease control at the LIZ as well as on the infectious cycle of this dangerous zoonotic pathogen.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1597654
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-144275
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- PLoS One
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 15; Journal Issue: 1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Norris, Michael H., Zincke, Diansy, Leiser, Owen P., Kreuzer, Helen W., Hadfield, Ted L., and Blackburn, Jason. Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis lose their ability to rapidly grow and sporulate compared to wildlife outbreak strains. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228270.
Norris, Michael H., Zincke, Diansy, Leiser, Owen P., Kreuzer, Helen W., Hadfield, Ted L., & Blackburn, Jason. Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis lose their ability to rapidly grow and sporulate compared to wildlife outbreak strains. United States. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228270.
Norris, Michael H., Zincke, Diansy, Leiser, Owen P., Kreuzer, Helen W., Hadfield, Ted L., and Blackburn, Jason. Fri .
"Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis lose their ability to rapidly grow and sporulate compared to wildlife outbreak strains". United States. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228270.
@article{osti_1597654,
title = {Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis lose their ability to rapidly grow and sporulate compared to wildlife outbreak strains},
author = {Norris, Michael H. and Zincke, Diansy and Leiser, Owen P. and Kreuzer, Helen W. and Hadfield, Ted L. and Blackburn, Jason},
abstractNote = {Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax in animals and humans. The organism lies in a dormant state in the soil until introduced into an animal via, ingestion, cutaneous inoculation or inhalation. Once in the host, spores germinate into rapidly growing vegetative cells elaborating toxins. When animals die of anthrax, vegetative bacteria sporulate upon nutrient limitation in the carcass or soil while in the presence of air. After release into the soil environment, spores form a localized infectious zone (LIZ) at and around the carcass. Laboratory strains of B. anthracis produce fewer proteins associated with growth and sporulation compared to wild strains isolated from recent zoonotic disease events. We verified wild strains grow more rapidly than lab strains demonstrating a greater responsiveness to nutrient availability. Sporulation was significantly more rapid in these wild strains compared to lab strains, indicating wild strains are able to sporulate faster due to nutrient limitation while laboratory strains have a decrease in the speed at which they utilize nutrients and an increase in time to sporulation. These findings have implications for disease control at the LIZ as well as on the infectious cycle of this dangerous zoonotic pathogen.},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0228270},
journal = {PLoS One},
number = 1,
volume = 15,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {1}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
This content will become publicly available on January 24, 2021
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Spores and soil from six sides: interdisciplinarity and the environmental biology of anthrax ( Bacillus anthracis ): The environmental biology of Bacillus anthracis
journal, May 2018
- Carlson, Colin J.; Getz, Wayne M.; Kausrud, Kyrre L.
- Biological Reviews, Vol. 93, Issue 4
Bacillus anthracis on Gruinard Island
journal, November 1981
- Manchee, R. J.; Broster, M. G.; Melling, J.
- Nature, Vol. 294, Issue 5838
Fatal attraction: vegetation responses to nutrient inputs attract herbivores to infectious anthrax carcass sites
journal, November 2014
- Turner, Wendy C.; Kausrud, Kyrre L.; Krishnappa, Yathin S.
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 281, Issue 1795
The ecology of Bacillus anthracis
journal, December 2009
- Hugh-Jones, Martin; Blackburn, Jason
- Molecular Aspects of Medicine, Vol. 30, Issue 6
Modeling of Wildlife-Associated Zoonoses: Applications and Caveats
journal, December 2012
- Alexander, Kathleen A.; Lewis, Bryan L.; Marathe, Madhav
- Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, Vol. 12, Issue 12
The Necrophagous Fly Anthrax Transmission Pathway: Empirical and Genetic Evidence from Wildlife Epizootics
journal, August 2014
- Blackburn, Jason K.; Van Ert, Matthew; Mullins, Jocelyn C.
- Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, Vol. 14, Issue 8
Modeling the Geographic Distribution of Bacillus anthracis, the Causative Agent of Anthrax Disease, for the Contiguous United States using Predictive Ecologic Niche Modeling
journal, December 2007
- Hugh-Jones, Martin E.; McNyset, Kristina M.; Curtis, Andrew
- The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Vol. 77, Issue 6
Dances with Anthrax: Wolves ( Canis lupus ) Kill Anthrax Bacteremic Plains Bison ( Bison bison bison ) in Southwestern Montana
journal, April 2014
- Blackburn, Jason K.; Asher, Valpa; Stokke, Stephen
- Journal of Wildlife Diseases, Vol. 50, Issue 2
Laboratory strains of Bacillus anthracis exhibit pervasive alteration in expression of proteins related to sporulation under laboratory conditions relative to genetically related wild strains
journal, December 2018
- Leiser, Owen P.; Blackburn, Jason K.; Hadfield, Ted L.
- PLOS ONE, Vol. 13, Issue 12
The Complete Genome Sequence of Bacillus anthracis Ames "Ancestor"
journal, October 2008
- Ravel, J.; Jiang, L.; Stanley, S. T.
- Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 191, Issue 1
Global Genetic Population Structure of Bacillus anthracis
journal, May 2007
- Van Ert, Matthew N.; Easterday, W. Ryan; Huynh, Lynn Y.
- PLoS ONE, Vol. 2, Issue 5
Differentiation of Springtime Vegetation Indices Associated with Summer Anthrax Epizootics in West Texas, USA, Deer
journal, July 2013
- Blackburn, Jason K.; Goodin, Douglas G.
- Journal of Wildlife Diseases, Vol. 49, Issue 3
Sporulation and viability of B. anthracis in relation to environmental temperature and humidity
journal, January 1950
- Minett, F. C.
- Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, Vol. 60
Evaluation of spore extraction and purification methods for selective recovery of viable Bacillus anthracis spores
journal, August 2001
- Dragon, D. C.; Rennie, R. P.
- Letters in Applied Microbiology, Vol. 33, Issue 2
The influence of temperature and humidity on spore formation and germination in Bacillus anthracis
journal, June 1960
- Davies, D. G.
- Journal of Hygiene, Vol. 58, Issue 2
Occurrence, recognition, and reversion of spontaneous, sporulation-deficient Bacillus anthracis mutants that arise during laboratory culture
journal, May 2012
- Sastalla, Inka; Leppla, Stephen H.
- Microbes and Infection, Vol. 14, Issue 5
Control of Anthrax Toxin Gene Expression by the Transition State Regulator abrB
journal, January 2002
- Saile, E.; Koehler, T. M.
- Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 184, Issue 2
Accidental Selection and Intentional Restoration of Sporulation-Deficient Bacillus anthracis Mutants
journal, July 2010
- Sastalla, I.; Rosovitz, M. J.; Leppla, S. H.
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 76, Issue 18
Developmental switch of S-layer protein synthesis in Bacillus anthracis
journal, March 2002
- Mignot, Tam; Mesnage, Stephane; Couture-Tosi, Evelyne
- Molecular Microbiology, Vol. 43, Issue 6
Expression Profiling of Translation-associated Genes in Sporulating Bacillus subtilis and Consequence of Sporulation by Gene Inactivation
journal, January 2003
- Ohashi, Yoshiaki; Inaoka, Takashi; Kasai, Koji
- Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, Vol. 67, Issue 10