Simultaneous identification and verification of Bacillus anthracis

Specific identification of Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis) is vital for the accurate treatment of afflicted personnel during biological warfare situations and civilian terrorist attacks. In order to accomplish this, we have subjected the lysates from B. anthracis to affinity purification using monoclonal antibodies for the selected antigenic protein present in the bacteria. The bound antigenic protein was identified by multi-dimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT) to be a surface layer protein EA1. The same antigen was identified from the lysates from a few strains of B. anthracis demonstrating the observation to be common for B. anthracis strains. Hence, this presents an effective pathway for the identification of the bacteria present in unknown samples of various origins. Generation of a database containing the EA1 protein has been found to be useful in the database search of unknown samples.