Date:   3/28/2012 12:09:36 PM ( 12 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1923181

Agrobacterium - note it can transfer genes to plant and fungi.... also note agrobacterium is used in genetic modification of food plants and cotton.

Morgellons could be a genetically modified organism with expert pleomorphism properties and the ability to transfer its genes to anything in the host environment - namely fungus but perhaps it has the ability to transfer genes to bacteria, viruses and parasites as well?

Uses in biotechnology
See also: horizontal gene transfer

The ability of Agrobacterium to transfer genes to plants and fungi is used in biotechnology, in particular, genetic engineering for plant improvement. A modified Ti or Ri plasmid can be used. The plasmid is 'disarmed' by deletion of the tumor inducing genes; the only essential parts of the T-DNA are its two small (25 base pair) border repeats, at least one of which is needed for plant transformation. Marc Van Montagu and Jozef Schell at the University of Ghent (Belgium) discovered the gene transfer mechanism between Agrobacterium and plants, which resulted in the development of methods to alter Agrobacterium into an efficient delivery system for gene engineering in plants.[7][8] A team of researchers led by Dr Mary-Dell Chilton were the first to demonstrate that the virulence genes could be removed without adversely affecting the ability of Agrobacterium to insert its own DNA into the plant genome (1983).

The genes to be introduced into the plant are cloned into a plant transformation vector that contains the T-DNA region of the disarmed plasmid, together with a selectable marker (such as Antibiotic resistance) to enable selection for plants that have been successfully transformed. Plants are grown on media containing Antibiotic following transformation, and those that do not have the T-DNA integrated into their genome will die. An alternative method is agroinfiltration.
Plant (S. chacoense) transformed using Agrobacterium. Transformed cells start forming calluses on the side of the leaf pieces

Transformation with Agrobacterium can be achieved in two ways. Protoplasts, or leaf-discs can be incubated with the Agrobacterium and whole plants regenerated using plant tissue culture. A common transformation protocol for Arabidopsis is the floral-dip method: the flowers are dipped in an Agrobacterium culture, and the bacterium transforms the germline cells that make the female gametes. The seeds can then be screened for Antibiotic resistance (or another marker of interest), and plants that have not integrated the plasmid DNA will die.

Agrobacterium does not infect all plant species, but there are several other effective techniques for plant transformation including the gene gun.

Agrobacterium is listed as being the original source of genetic material that was transferred to these USA Genetically-Modified-Organisms foods:[9]

Soybean
Cotton
Corn
Sugar Beet
Alfalfa
Wheat
Rapeseed Oil (Canola)
Creeping bentgrass (for animal feed)
Rice (Golden Rice)

 

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