DNA of the spores used in the anthrax attack was identical to the army strain

By Alllie

DNA of the spores used in the anthrax attack was sequenced and found to be identical to the army strain and the lack of any mutations in the DNA shows that it was separated by 0 to 3 years from the reference strain.

Anthrax attack bug "identical" to army strain
The DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the US mail in 2001 has been revealed and confirms suspicions that the bacteria originally came from a US military laboratory.
The data released uses codenames for the reference strains against which the attack strain was compared. But New Scientist can reveal that the two reference strains that appear identical to the attack strain most likely originated at the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick (USAMRIID), Maryland.

The new work also shows that substantial genetic differences can emerge in two samples of an anthrax culture separated for only three years. This means the attacker's anthrax was not separated from its ancestors at USAMRIID for many generations.

The strains from the collaborative labs appear certain to be strains B, C and D. In that case, one was the reference Ames in Keim's collection that came from a freezer at Porton Down, which in turn had got it from USAMRIID. Another was a culture that came directly from USAMRIID, and the last was from the US Army's Dugway proving ground in Utah.

TIGR spokesmen and other sources have stated that Keim could find no differences between the attack strain and the reference Ames in his collection at any marker tested in his lab. The tests reported in Science are no better at doing this. So one of B and C is Keim's Porton Down/USAMRIID reference strain. The other is likely to be the culture directly from USAMRIID, as the reference strain originated there and had since languished in a freezer.

So, if the anthrax had been separated from the USAMRIID ancestors for more than 3 years, there would have been some genetic differences. There were none. The anthrax sent to Daschle and Leahy was identical to US Army stores. This proves that it was not an old sample stolen or distributed 10 or 20 or 30 years ago.

 


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