SUSPICIONS that the perpetrator of last year’s anthrax attacks used bugs that came from the US Army were strengthened last week by the publication of their DNA sequence. But tests that could further narrow down the source have yet to begin.
When the attacks began last October, The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, had already begun sequencing anthrax. By luck, TIGR had chosen a variant of the “Ames” strain the attacker used. The institute joined forces with Paul Keim at Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff to sequence the attack variant as well.
They found many genetic differences between…
