Abstract
Specific identification of Bacillus anthracis and differentiation from closely related Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis strains is still a major diagnostic problem. Commercially available diagnostic kits targeting plasmid-markers cannot differentiate between B. anthracis, non-anthracis Bacillus species harbouring anthrax-specific virulence plasmids, and plasmidless B. anthracis strains. A TaqMan® PCR assay was designed targeting sequences of gene locus BA_5345 of the B. anthracis strain Ames. Specificity was determined by using a panel of 328 Bacillus strains; sensitivity was determined by probit analysis. All B. anthracis isolates (n = 92) were specifically detected by using the genomic TaqMan® PCR assay whereas 236 strains belonging to 19 Bacillus species other than B. anthracis were PCR negative. The detection limit was determined to be 12.7 copies per reaction (95% confidence interval 10.2-17.5 copies). Here we present an extensively evaluated and - to our current knowledge - specific TaqMan® PCR assay for the detection of B. anthracis based on a chromosomal marker.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 313-315 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Molecular and Cellular Probes |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 5-6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2008 |
Keywords
- BA5345
- Bacillus anthracis
- Chromosomal marker
- Real-time PCR
- dhp61