Braun Peter, Knüpfer Mandy, Antwerpen Markus, Triebel Dagmar, Grass Gregor
Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology (IMB), 80937 Munich, Germany.
Bavarian Natural History Collections (SNSB-Botanische Staatssammlung München), 80638 Munich, Germany.
Microorganisms. 2020 Feb 21;8(2):298. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8020298.
The bacterium is the causative agent of the zoonotic disease anthrax. While genomics of extant isolates established in-depth phylogenomic relationships, there is scarce information on the historic genomics of the pathogen. Here, we characterized the oldest documented specimen. The inactive 142-year-old material originated from a bovine diseased in Chemnitz (Germany) in 1878 and is contemporary with the seminal studies of Robert Koch on . A specifically developed isolation method yielded high-quality DNA from this specimen for genomic sequencing. The bacterial chromosome featuring 242 unique base-characters placed it into a major phylogenetic clade of (B.Branch CNEVA), which is typical for central Europe today. Our results support the notion that the CNEVA-clade represents part of the indigenous genetic lineage of in this part of Europe. This work emphasizes the value of historic specimens as precious resources for reconstructing the past phylogeny of the anthrax pathogen.
这种细菌是人畜共患疾病炭疽的病原体。虽然现存分离株的基因组学建立了深入的系统发育基因组关系，但关于该病原体历史基因组学的信息却很少。在这里，我们对记录最久的样本进行了特征描述。这份保存了142年的无活性材料于1878年取自德国开姆尼茨一头患病的牛，与罗伯特·科赫关于炭疽杆菌的开创性研究属于同一时期。一种专门开发的分离方法从该样本中获得了用于基因组测序的高质量DNA。具有242个独特碱基特征的细菌染色体将其归入炭疽杆菌的一个主要系统发育分支（B.分支CNEVA），这在如今的中欧很典型。我们的结果支持这样一种观点，即CNEVA分支代表了欧洲这一地区炭疽杆菌本土遗传谱系的一部分。这项工作强调了历史样本作为重建炭疽病原体过去系统发育的宝贵资源的价值。
