Query: NC_017223:51180 Bordetella pertussis CS chromosome, complete genome
Lineage: Bordetella pertussis; Bordetella; Alcaligenaceae; Burkholderiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This group of organisms is capable of invading the respiratory tract of animals and causing severe diseases. They express a number of virulence factors in order to do this including filamentous hemagglutins for attachment, cytotoxins, and proteins that form a type III secretion system for transport of effector molecules into host cells. This organism, which is unable to persist in the environment, is a strict human pathogen that causes whooping cough. Once a common cause of death in children the development of a vaccine has greatly decreased the number of deaths due to Bordetella pertussis. However, this organism infects and estimated 39 million people and kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.
Subject: NC_009138:1138917 Herminiimonas arsenicoxydans, complete genome
Lineage: Herminiimonas arsenicoxydans; Herminiimonas; Oxalobacteraceae; Burkholderiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: Herminiimonas arsenicoxydans was isolated from heavy metal contaminated sludge from an industrial water treatment plant. This organism has a number of mechanisms for metabolizing arsenic allowing it to effectively colonize arsenic-contaminated environments. A bacterium capable of oxidizing and reducing arsenic. This heterotrophic bacterium is capable of reducing and oxidizing arsenic with the objective of detoxification. Arsenic is both a product from natural sources and of human activities, and is widely distributed in the environment, essentially in 3 different oxidation states: As (-III) (arsine), As (+III) (arsenite) and As (+V) (arseniate). The ecology of this metalloid is strongly dependent on microbial transformations which affect the mobility and bioavailability as well as the toxicity of arsenic in the environment.