Fast Breaking Comment by Steven Salzberg

Steven Salzberg answers a few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in the field of Microbiology.

From •>>August 2003

Field: Microbiology
Article Title: "Comparative genome sequencing for discovery of novel polymorphisms in Bacillus anthracis"
Authors: Read, TD;Salzberg, SL;Pop, M;Shumway, M;Umayam, L;Jiang, LX;Holtzapple, E;Busch, JD;Smith, KL;Schupp, JM;Solomon, D;Keim, P;Fraser, CM
Journal: SCIENCE
Volume: 296
Page: 2028-2033
Year: JUN 14 2002
* Inst Genom Res, 9712 Ctr Dr, Rockville, MD 20850 USA.
* Inst Genom Res, Rockville, MD 20850 USA.
* No Arizona Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 USA.

Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

It describes the anthrax bacterium that was used in the bioterror attacks in the fall of 2001. Ours is the first scientific study of this attack, and not surprisingly it generated a huge amount of interest in the press and in the general public.

Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

Yes, we demonstrated how one can use whole-genome sequencing to create forensic markers that investigators can use to distinguish between bacteria involved in a bioterrorism event.

How did you become involved in this research?

TIGR is probably the world's pre-eminent center for bacterial genome sequencing, and it was therefore natural for the government to ask us to sequence the Bacillus anthracis used in the bioterror attack.

Steven L. Salzberg
Senior Director of Bioinformatics
The Institute for Genomic Research
Rockville, MD, USA

Read comments by Timothy Reed; co-author of this Fast Breaking Paper

ESI Special Topics, August 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/2003/august03-StevenSalzberg.html