Differentiation of Bacillus anthracis and other 'Bacillus cereus group' bacteria using IS231-derived sequences

Abstract Sequences based on the conserved 20 bp inverted repeat of IS 231 variants were used as polymerase chain reaction-based fingerprinting primers of the member species of the Bacillus cereus group ( B. anthracis, B. cereus, B. thuringiensis and B. mycoides ), because of their close association with transposons, principally Tn 4430 in B. thuringiensis . Fingerprints of B. anthracis were simple, and specifically allowed its identification and sub-differentiation from other members of the group. Fingerprints for B. cereus were strain-specific; those for B. thuringensis gave a 1650 bp product, characteristic of 1S 231 variants A-F. The same reaction conditions gave one or two bands for both B. anthracis and B. cereus that differed by restriction endonuclease mapping from the B. thuringiensis PCR product and established IS 231 restriction maps; this does not preclude some kind of relationship between these products and IS 231 .