Discrimination between biothreat agents and 'near neighbor' species using a resequencing array

Timely identification of biothreat organisms from large numbers of clinical or environmental samples in potential outbreak or attack scenario is critical for effective diagnosis and treatment. This study aims to evaluate the potential of resequencing arrays for this purpose. Albeit suboptimal, this report demonstrated that respiratory pathogen microarray version 1 can identify Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Yersinia pestis and distinguish them from benign 'near neighbor' species in a single assay. Additionally, the sequence information can discriminate strains and possibly the sources of the strains. With further development, it is possible to use resequencing microarrays for biothreat surveillance.