Researchers at the forefront of genome science will map the deadly bacterium's DNA, hoping to discover whether it's been engineered to be more virulent.
The National Science Foundation has awarded The Institute for Genomic Research an emergency fund of $200,000 to tackle the project, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A map of the entire genome of the anthrax bacterium could give federal investigators and health authorities clues into whether the anthrax found recently in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. has been engineered to resist certain antibiotics.
The researchers will use a sample of anthrax collected in Florida, where a letter stuffed with the bacterium caused one death and one infection at American Media Inc.
They will compare their results with a nearly-complete DNA map of a different strain of anthrax started about two years ago by the same researchers. A side-by-side comparison should show whether the strain that surfaced since Sept. 11 has been genetically engineered to be resistant to certain antibiotics.
Previous DNA fingerprinting tests –- a method that tests for small, unique elements of DNA –- have indicated that the anthrax has not been genetically engineered. But experts say only a complete genome sequence will show for sure.
"We need to use our sequencing power to really attack this and to stay ahead of the pathogen engineers," Elbert Branscomb, senior adviser to the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, told the Journal.
Some scientists wondered if an emergency map of the entire anthrax bacterium genome was really necessary, saying DNA fingerprinting would probably suffice.
In any case, the project is also evidence of the impact new gene sequencing technologies have had in making such an endeavor possible.
In 1995, it took almost a year and $1 million to sequence the DNA of Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that can cause meningitis. The anthrax genome is similar in size, with about 5,000 genes, and will take several weeks and cost less than one-tenth that amount.
