A Bacillus anthracis Genome Sequence from the Sverdlovsk 1979 Autopsy Specimens

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease that occurs naturally in wild and domestic animals but has been used by both state-sponsored programs and terrorists as a biological weapon. The 2001 anthrax letter attacks involved less than gram quantities of Bacillus anthracis spores while the earlier Soviet weapons program produced tons. A Soviet industrial production facility in Sverdlovsk proved deficient in 1979 when a plume of spores was accidentally released and resulted in one of the largest known human anthrax outbreak. In order to understand this outbreak and others, we have generated a B. anthracis population genetic database based upon whole genome analysis to identify all SNPs across a reference g