WASHINGTON -- The prospect of new vaccines and protection against anthrax terror attacks came a step closer after scientists announced the first complete genetic sequencing of the bug.

The genome of the notorious Ames strain of the anthrax bug, bacillus anthracis -- almost identical to that used in the 2001 postal attacks in the U.S. -- has been completely analyzed and sequenced, it has been disclosed.

The research, published in the journal*** Nature,*** was completed by U.S. scientists at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland, and the George Washington University, Washington D.C.

Claire Fraser, TIGR president who supervised the project, said the DNA sequence provided an invaluable tool for researchers seeking to develop new drugs or vaccines against anthrax, DPA reported.

"Deciphering the anthrax genome is important to a wide range of biomedical and biodefense research. The genome sequence will benefit research projects to find targets for new drugs and vaccines as well as to improve anthrax detection and diagnosis," she said.

Anthrax-laced letters were posted in September and October 2001 in the U.S., and addressed to media organizations and two senators. The attacks killed five people and made at least 17 others ill. Hundreds of millions of dollars was spent on cleaning up government offices and postal facilities.

Although antibiotics can wipe out the bacteria, in practice they are not highly effective since the infection is usually at an advanced stage by the time a victim is diagnosed. The current vaccine has to be administered before infection to stop anthrax and requires more than one dose.

In the project outlined in*** Nature,*** the scientists sequenced the virulent Ames strain of bacillus anthracis which had been isolated from a Texan cow in 1981.

The bug was compared to the genetic sequence of its two closest family members -- bacillus cereus, a microbe and common soil bacterium that can cause food poisoning, and the insect pathogen bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bug that is used to control plant pests.

Scientists at integrated genomics, in Chicago, Illinois, sequenced a different strain of bacillus cereus, comparing it to an unfinished sequence of the strain used in the postal attacks in 2001. That genome analysis found only small differences in the gene content that distinguishes the deadly anthrax bacillus from bacillus cereus which thrives in gardens. The researchers find that bacillus anthracis contained an excess of genes for metabolizing proteins, compared to its closest relatives. As a result, anthrax seems to favor a more carnivorous diet, "suggesting that its ancestors may have preyed on the dead, or living bodies of insects and other animals," according to Julian Parkhill of the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, and Colin Berry of Cardiff University, in a separate article for*** Nature.***

"They are constantly ready and exquisitely able to adapt to and exploit any environmental or pathogenic niche that presents itself," they added.