BTyperDB: a community-curated, global atlas of Bacillus cereus sensu lato genomes for epidemiological surveillance

<p>The ability to cause foodborne illness, anthrax, and other infections has been attributed to numerous lineages within&nbsp;<em>Bacillus cereus sensu lato</em>&nbsp;(<em>s.l.</em>). However, existing pathogen surveillance databases facilitate dangerous pathogen misidentifications when applied to&nbsp;<em>B. cereus s.l.</em>, potentially hindering outbreak or bioterrorism attack response efforts. To address this, we developed BTyperDB (<a href="http://www.btyper.app/">www.btyper.app</a>), an atlas of&nbsp;<em>B. cereus s.l.</em>&nbsp;genomes with standardized, community-curated metadata. BTyperDB aggregates all publicly available&nbsp;<em>B. cereus s.l.</em>&nbsp;genomes (including &gt;2,600 previously unassembled genomes) with novel genomes donated by laboratories around the world, nearly doubling the number of publicly available&nbsp;<em>B. cereus s.l.</em> genomes. To showcase its utility for pathogen surveillance, we use BTyperDB to identify emerging anthrax toxin- and capsule-harboring lineages. Overall, our study provides insight into the epidemiology of an under-studied group of emerging pathogens and highlights the benefits of inclusive, community-driven metadata FAIRification efforts.</p>