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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2003, p. 6288-6293, Vol. 69, No. 10
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.10.6288-6293.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Species-Specific Peptide Ligands for the Detection of Bacillus anthracis Spores

David D. Williams, Orsolya Benedek,{dagger} and Charles L. Turnbough Jr.*

Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294

Received 11 March 2003/ Accepted 31 July 2003

Currently available detectors for spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, are inadequate for frontline use and general monitoring. There is a critical need for simple, rugged, and inexpensive detectors capable of accurate and direct identification of B. anthracis spores. Necessary components in such detectors are stable ligands that bind tightly and specifically to target spores. By screening a phage display peptide library, we identified a family of peptides, with the consensus sequence TYPXPXR, that bind selectively to B. anthracis spores. We extended this work by identifying a peptide variant, ATYPLPIR, with enhanced ability to bind to B. anthracis spores and an additional peptide, SLLPGLP, that preferentially binds to spores of species phylogenetically similar to, but distinct from, B. anthracis. These two peptides were used in tandem in simple assays to rapidly and unambiguously identify B. anthracis spores. We envision that these peptides can be used as sensors in economical and portable B. anthracis spore detectors that are essentially free of false-positive signals due to other environmental Bacillus spores.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, BBRB 409, 845 19th St. South, Birmingham, AL 35294. Phone: (205) 934-6289. Fax: (205) 975-5479. E-mail: ChuckT{at}uab.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs 7624, Hungary.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2003, p. 6288-6293, Vol. 69, No. 10
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.10.6288-6293.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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