Figure 1.
Phylogenetic analysis of “B. cereus var. anthracis” strain CI.
(A) Phylogenetic characterization based on 16S rRNA genes. (B) Phylogenetic analysis based on multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of the B. cereus group [22].
Table 1.
General genome features of bacilli from the B. cereus group.
Figure 2.
Circular maps of “B. cereus var. anthracis” strain CI chromosome and plasmids.
(A) Circular map of Bc var. anth. CI chromosome in comparison with chromosomes of the B. cereus group. The map is oriented with the origin of replication on top, the direction of replication is depicted by arrowheads. The rings display from outside to the center a) ORFs, clockwise transcribed genes in gold, counterclockwise in green, b) GC-skew c) stable RNAs genes in red d) genomic islands in green, the flagella locus in light blue and repetitive elements in blue, e) GC-content, f)–l) BiBlast comparisons of strain CI with f) B. anthracis Ames Ancestor, g) B. anthracis Ames, h) B. anthracis Sterne, i) B. cereus ATCC 10987, j) B. cereus E33L, k) B. thuringiensis serovar konkukian strain 97-27, and l) B. weihenstephanensis strain KBA4. Shared genes are displayed in grey, missing genes in red, white regions refer to regions of Bc var. anth. strain CI that do not code for proteins. Known genomic islands are indicated by roman numbers. (B) Circular maps of the Bc var. anth. CI plasmids pCI-XO1, pCI-XO2 and pCI-14, the sizes of the circles are correlated to relative size of the plasmids. Clockwise transcribed genes are depicted in gold, counter clockwise transcribed genes in green. The inner ring displays the GC-content. Invertible elements A and B in pCI-XO1 are marked in light blue, virulence correlated genes in element B are marked red. Genes for capsule synthesis in pCI-XO2 are depicted in red.
Table 2.
“B. cereus var. anthracis” strain CI regions larger than 12 kbp and plasmid pCI-14.
Figure 3.
Organization of the sigK locus in “B. cereus var. anthracis” strain CI.
The disrupted sigK gene is shown on the top. Shaded rectangles/arrows represent the 5′ and 3′ fragments of the disrupted gene. The intervening sequence is indicated by a dashed line, and the position and orientation of the recombinase gene are indicated by a black arrow. An intact sigK gene and a circularized molecule comprising the excised intervening sequence (bottom) are generated by a proposed reciprocal recombination event.
Figure 4.
Comparison of the flagella gene loci encoding flagella genes in strains of the B. cereus group.
Motile strains are marked with an asterisk. Nonfunctional genes are depicted in red, corresponding functional genes in green, intact corresponding genes shared by all strains are grey. The essential flagellin genes have been marked purple and inserted gene blocks in blue. “B. cereus var. anthracis” CI contains apparently a fully functional motility locus like strains B. cereus E33L and B. thuringiensis konkukian 97-27. B. cereus ATCC 14579 and B. weihenstephanensis KBA4 contain a duplication of the flagellin genes. The insertion of additional sequences and accordingly the duplication of genes occur in corresponding regions of the motility locus.
Figure 5.
Comparative genome alignment of the secA2 locus in members of the B. cereus sensu lato group.
The numbers indicate ORFs 18: secA2, 15–17: conserved hypothetical proteins, 1: sulfate transporter, 12/13: csaA/csaB polysaccharide synthase subunits. * mobile genetic elements.