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Virulence Megaplasmids in Bacillus anthracis and Their Relatives in the Bacillus cereus Group

  • Chapter
Microbial Megaplasmids

Part of the book series: Microbiology Monographs ((MICROMONO,volume 11))

Abstract

Bacillus anthracis is the etiological agent of anthrax. In the 1980s, a link was discovered between plasmids and major virulence factors of B. anthracis. Indeed, the three toxin components are encoded by pXO1, a 181-kb plasmid, and the poly-glutamate capsule biosynthetic operon is carried by pXO2, a 97-kb plas-mid. The functions encoded by a few other genes were described after screening or selecting for specific phenotypes, such as regulation of virulence factor synthesis. Despite a renewal of interest in B. anthracis at the end of the twentieth century, which prompted further research and led to complete sequencing of both plas-mids in 1999, only few genes have been fully characterized. These include genes involved in replication, sporulation, and germination. Yet, 40% of the open reading frames (ORFs) are of unknown function, and for most of the others a function has only been predicted in silico. B. anthracis is, on a genetic basis, a Bacillus cereus. B. cereus strains also harbor megaplasmids, some sharing core sequences with pXO1 and pXO2. These plasmids also encode virulence factors or specific environmental adaptive pathways.

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Acknowledgments

M Moya was funded by DGA no. 04 34 025 and CRSSA (Ministère de la Défense/DGA) no. 04 07 005/00

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  1. Institut Pasteur, Toxines et Pathogénie Bactérienne, CNRS, URA 2172, France

    Agnès Fouet & Marie Moya

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  1. Institut fuer Biologie, Mikrobiologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Chausseestr. 117, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Edward Schwartz

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Fouet, A., Moya, M. (2009). Virulence Megaplasmids in Bacillus anthracis and Their Relatives in the Bacillus cereus Group. In: Schwartz, E. (eds) Microbial Megaplasmids. Microbiology Monographs, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85467-8_9

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