Welcome to the Brucella Bioinformatics Portal (BBP)!
Brucella is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular coccobacillus which causes brucellosis in humans and a variety of animal species. HHuman brucellosis is the commonest zoonotic disease worldwide with more than 500,000 new cases reported annually. The Brucellae are taxonomically placed in the alpha-2 subdivision of the class Proteobacteria. Traditionally there are six species of Brucella based on the preferential host specificity: B. melitensis (goats), B. abortus (cattle), B. suis (swine), B. canis (dogs), B. ovis (sheep) and B. neotomae (desert mice);
two new species B. cetaceae (cetacean) and B. pinnipediae (seal) have recently been described by Cloeckaert et al. [Microbes Infect (2001) 3, 729-738]. The first four species are pathogenic to humans in decreasing order of severity making brucellosis a zoonotic disease. These Brucella species have been identified as priority agents amenable for use in biological warfare and bio-terrorism and listed as NIAID category B priority pathogens. Complete genome sequences of 25 Brucella strains are now available. A Brucella genome usually has two circular chromosomes of approximately 2.1 MB and 1.2 MB and has a GC content of approximately 57%. There are approximately 3,200 - 3,400 ORFs in each genome. The DNA sequences among different Brucella spp. share greater than 90% homology. The Brucella taxonomy is available here from the NCBI Taxonomy database and is also overseen by the Brucella Taxonomy Committee. More detailed Brucella background information is available here.
This BBP website is dedicated to becoming a bioinformatics resource portal for the Brucella research community to facilitate Brucella reearch.
BBP has long been developed by Dr. He and used as a model for the overall PHIDIAS development. BBP includes a list of programs for analysis of
Brucella and host-Brucella interactions:
- Genomic Sequence Analysis:
- Brucella Genome Analysis: Detailed analysis and download of the Brucella genome, gene, protein and sequence data.
- Brucella GBrowse: Brucella genome browser. This program allows searching, comparison, and visualization of Brucella genomes and individual DNA/protein/RNA sequences. It is part of PGBrowser and also allows comparison with other genome sequences.
- Protein Domains in Brucella: This program searches Brucella -specific protein domains. As an integrated part of Pacodom, this program can also be used to search and compare protein domains of other pathogens.
- PHI Specific Curation:
- General Brucellosis Information: General information about Brucella and brucellosis as part of Phinfo. Please click here for advanced topic search of Brucella and brucellosis.
- Brucella Gene Query: This program searches
Brucella and host genes. This is part of Phigen that also be used to compare with other pathogen genes.
- Brucella Virulence Factors: A collection of Brucella virulence factors.
- Host-Brucella Interaction Network: this program analyze networks involving the interactions between Brucella and hosts. It is part of Phinet that also targets for many other pathogens.
- Brucella as a Hazard: This program focuses on
Brucella-related safety and administrative issues. It is part of HazARD that is also able to compare safety and administrative issues between
Brucella and other pathogens.
- Brucella-specific Gene Expression:
- Phix: PHI Gene Expression Database.
- MacroPath: Macrophage-Brucella Interaction.
- Brucella-specific literature:
- LiteSearch: Brucella literature search and mining programs.
- Publications: Brucella-specific publications and links.
Other relevant projects developed by He Group:
Additional Web Links:
Publication:
Zuoshuang Xiang, Wenjie Zheng and Yongqun He. BBP: Brucella genome annotation with literature mining and curation. BMC Bioinformatics. 2006 Jul 16;7(1):347. (Highly Accessed). PMID: 16842628.
Listed are the news related to Brucella research and development. Please submit your news to us and we will have it posted here. Thank you.
- 9/6/2012: Brucellosis 2012 (65th) International Research Conference: The 65th Annual Brucellosis Research Conference will be held December 1-2 at the Chicago Marriott, Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, Illinois. The meeting will begin Saturday, December 1, at 8:00 am and conclude with the business meeting Sunday, December 2, at 5pm. Please check out more information from Ms. Sue Hagius's email and the meeting announcement Sue provided.
- 8/3/2012: Ms. Sue Hagius provided the following information: If you plan to attend CRWAD 2012 after our brucellosis meeting on December 1 and 2, 2012, you may need the deadlines. Remember our registration is separate from theirs and will be in the morning before the meeting begins. The hotel reservation link which you should use is also listed.
- Brucellosis 2011 (64th) International Research Conference: will be held on September 21-23, 2011, at UCA Auditorium, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Agentina. The abstract submission deadline is May 28, 2011.
- Brucellosis 2010 (63rd) International Research Conference: was held on December 4-5, 2010, Chicago Marriott, Chicago, Illinois.
- 09/21/2009: 62th Annual Brucellosis Research Conference (BRC 2009): the meeting will be held December 5-6 at the Chicago Marriott, Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, Illinois. The meeting will begin Saturday at 8:00 am and conclude with the business meeting Sunday at noon. the deadline for submitting a title/abstract is Friday, October 23, 2009. Please check Ms. Sue Hagius' email about the news. Sue also sent the detailed meeting announcement and abstract guidelines can be found here: HTML version, or Word version.
- 03/16/2009: 20 More Brucella Strains have been sequenced by Broad Institute. The sequences have been assembled and annotated. The collaborators for this project include Drs. David O'Callaghan (France), Adrian Whatmore (UK), and Renee Tsolis (USA).
- 09/10-13/2008: Brucellosis 2008 International Conference, London, UK.
- 06/16/08: Important International Brucellosis meeting dates and CRWAD information in Word or HTML format. The website for the Brucella 2008 International Conference (Including the 61th Brucellosis Research Conference) is here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/vla/news/new_conf_bruc.htm. The deadline of submitting abstract is June 27th (Friday), 2008.
- 10/1/07: Announcement about Brucellosis 2008 International Research Conference in Word or HTML format (from Dr. Adrian Whatmore).
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