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Bacillus anthracis , the etiological agent of anthrax disease, is typically diagnosed by immunological and molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Alternatively, mass spectrometry techniques may aid in confirming the presence of the pathogen or its toxins. However, because of the close genetic relationship between  B. anthracis  and other members of the  Bacillus cereus sensu lato  group (such  as Bacillus cereus  or  Bacillus thuringiensis ) mis- or questionable identification occurs frequently. Also, bacteriophages such as phage gamma (which is highly specific for  B. anthracis ) have been in use for anthrax diagnostics for many decades. Here we employed host cell-specific receptor binding proteins (RBP) of (pro)-phages, also known as tail or head fibers, to develop a microscopy-based approach for the facile, rapid and unambiguous detection of  B. anthracis  cells. For this, the genes of (putative) RBP from  Bacillus  phages gamma, Wip1, AP50c and from lambdoid prophage 03 located on the chromosome of  B. anthracis  were selected. Respective phage genes were heterologously expressed in  Escherichia coli  and purified as fusions with fluorescent proteins.  B. anthracis  cells incubated with either of the reporter fusion proteins were successfully surface-labeled. Binding specificity was confirmed as RBP fusion proteins did not bind to most isolates of a panel of other  B. cereus s.l.  species or to more distantly related bacteria. Remarkably, RBP fusions detected encapsulated  B. anthracis  cells, thus RBP were able to penetrate the poly-γ- d -glutamate capsule of  B. anthracis . From these results we anticipate this RBP-reporter assay may be useful for rapid confirmative identification of  B. anthracis .

Rapid Microscopic Detection of Bacillus anthracis by Fluorescent Receptor Binding Proteins of Bacteriophages