The lantibiotic nisin inhibits growth of vegetative Gram-positive bacteria by binding to lipid II, which disrupts cell wall biosynthesis and facilitates pore formation. Nisin also inhibits the outgrowth of bacterial spores, including spores of Bacillus anthracis, whose structural and biochemical properties are fundamentally different from those of vegetative bacteria. The molecular basis of nis...

Anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis, a Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium, is initiated by the entry of spores into the host body. There are three types of human infection: cutaneous, inhalational, and gastrointestinal. For each form, B. anthracis spores need to cross the cutaneous, respiratory or digestive epithelial barriers, respectively, as a first obligate step to establish infection....

Background. Bacillus species are aerobic or facultative anaerobic, gram-positive, or gram-variable spore-forming rods. They are ubiquitous in the environmental sources. Bacillus anthracis may usually cause three forms of anthrax: inhalation, gastrointestinal, and cutaneous. The gastrointestinal (GI) anthrax develops after eating contaminated meat. In this paper we report septic intestinal anthr...

AIMS To evaluate the effectiveness of two spray-based decontamination methods for surface contamination reduction and to determine the potential for contamination spread by these methods. METHODS AND RESULTS Material coupons (treated plywood and concrete) were contaminated with c. 1 × 10(7) spores of Bacillus atrophaeus by aerosol deposition. Decontaminants (pH-adjusted bleach or Spor-Klenz(®...

AIMS The Cepheid GeneXpert is a four-site, automated sample preparation and real-time PCR detection system. In this study, the capability of the GeneXpert to isolate and detect nucleic acid from Bacillus anthracis Ames spores was assessed. METHODS AND RESULTS A four-plex, dried-down bead cartridge containing PCR reagents specific for the pXO1 and pXO2 plasmids as well as sample processing and...

A naive, human single-chain Fv (scFv) phage-display library was used in bio-panning against live, native spores of Bacillus subtilis IFO 3336 suspended in solution. A direct in vitro panning and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based selection afforded a panel of nine scFv-phage clones of which two, 5B and 7E, were chosen for further study. These two clones differed in their relative specifici...

The methods suggested for the identification of species of the genus Bacillus in the invaluable monographs of Smith et al. (1946, 1952) have been applied to a collection of named cultures, and also have been utilized for the classification of approximately 400 strains of these organisms isolated from samples of blood, spinal fluid, surgical tissue, and other human and animal sources, as well as...

to isolate and detect anthrax spores from soil in different regions of isfahan, iran a total of 60 environmental specimens were collected during 2003. bacterial endospores were extracted via flotation in distilled water and were cultured on blood agar and selective plet media. bacillus anthracis was identified using bacteriological and biological tests. viable bacillus anthracis spores were iso...