September 2015 SPADA Meeting

The Charge • Select B. anthracis strains representative of the current available B. anthracis collection that represent the diversity across this species • These strains will be used to validate detection assays – A successful assay should detect all of these isolates*

*Some assays may detect sequences or materials not present in all isolates

What is a B. anthracis isolate?

• The causative agent of anthrax • A bacterium that meets clinical criteria for being B. anthracis – Colony morphology, Gram stain, presence of capsule, motility, hemolytic activity,  phage sensitivity, pen s , etc. • An isolate containing pXO1 and pXO2 unless otherwise identified as missing one of these plasmids A i l t th t b lti l h l ti th d • n so a e a maps, y mu p e p y ogene c me o s, to a tight cluster of microbes sharing these characteristics