The genetic blueprint of yet another important disease-causing microbe, the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, has been deciphered and analyzed. C. burnetii -- a highly infectious organism that sickened thousands of soldiers in Europe during World War II -- can cause a debilitating flu-like illness in humans called Q fever. Additionally, the microbe is a potential agent of bioterrorism. Although only severe cases of Q fever are fatal, C. burnetii is of concern as a potential bioterrorist threat because early diagnosis of the disease is difficult, and the microbe is a hardy organism that can be aerosolized.

A report describing the sequencing project will be published online this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and will appear in the journal's April 29th print edition.

The research project, led by John Heidelberg, Ph.D., and Rekha Seshadri, Ph.D., at The Institute of Genomic Research in Rockville, MD, was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Study collaborators included Robert A. Heinzen, Ph.D., of NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, MT; Herbert A. Thompson, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta; and James E. Samuel, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University System Health Science Center in College Station. Of historical note, the Nine Mile strain of Coxiella burnetii just sequenced was discovered and isolated by Harold Cox, Ph.D., and his colleague Gordon Davis, Ph.D., in the mid-1930s while working at Rocky Mountain Laboratories.

"The genomic revolution promises profound benefits to human health," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "Together with researchers around the world, NIAID continues to make significant contributions to a true revolution in biomedical research: the use of microbial genomic information to illuminate disease pathogenesis and to find new targets for dru
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Contact: Laurie K, Doepel
doepel@nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
15-Apr-2003

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