Agrobacterium & Morgellons Disease: is there A Genetic Engineered Foods (GM) Connection?

[Guest guest]

Subject: Agrobacterium & Morgellons Disease: is there A Genetic Engineered Foods

(GM) Connection?

To: total_truth_sciencesgooglegroups

Date: Friday, August 22, 2008, 1:11 AM

Agrobacterium & Morgellons Disease, A GM Connection?

By: Webmaster Tags:

SCIENCE/HEALTH

LINK: no longer used: 

GO TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Preliminary findings suggest a link between Morgellons Disease and

Agrobacterium, a soil bacterium extensively manipulated and used in making GM

crops; has genetic engineering created a new epidemic?

Webmaster ' s Commentary: 

That would certainly explain the extreme reluctance shown by the medical

establishment in even acknowledging there is a problem in the first place!

»

1 comment

 

Agrobacterium & Morgellons Disease, A GM Connection?

 

by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins

 

 

Global Research, August 20, 2008

 

 

Email this article to a friend

Print this article

 

 

 

 

 

Preliminary findings suggest a link between Morgellons Disease and

Agrobacterium, a soil bacterium extensively manipulated and used in making GM

crops; has genetic engineering created a new epidemic? 

A fully illustrated and referenced version is posted on ISIS members’ website.

Details here.

An electronic version of the complete report, or any other complete ISIS report,

can be sent to you via e-mail for a donation of £3.50. Please e-mail the title

of the report to: reporti-sis (DOT) org.uk

 CDC launch investigation on Morgellons’ Disease

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States announced the launch

of an investigation on ‘Morgellons Disease’ in January 2008 [1], after receiving

thousands of complaints from people with this bewildering condition, which it

describes as follows [2]: “Persons who suffer from this unexplained skin

condition report a range of cutaneous (skin) symptoms including crawling, biting

and stinging sensations; granules, threads, fibers, or black speck-like

materials on or beneath the skin, and/or skin lesions (e.g., rashes or sores).

In addition to skin manifestations, some sufferers also report fatigue, mental

confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in visions.”

Morgellons Disease first became known in 2001, when Leitao created a web

site describing the illness in her young son, which she named after a 17th

century medical study in France describing similar symptoms [3]. Until then,

people with Morgellons Disease have been diagnosed as cases of “delusional

parasitosis”, in which the symptoms are deemed entirely imaginary, and lesions

allegedly due to self-inflicted wounds.

Indeed, the debate over Morgellons Disease has continued in the pages of medical

and scientific journals right up to the CDC’s announcement [4-7]

Dr. Michele Pearson, principal investigator for the CDC said [1] that the

primary goals of the study are “to learn more about who may be affected with

this condition, the symptoms they experience and to look for clues about factors

that might contribute to the condition,” adding that the condition is “complex”,

and “may be due to multiple factors.”

In response to questions from journalists at the CDC press conference, Pearson

said:

“ We are aware that many patients have suffered from this condition. And, I can

tell you that here at CDC, we have really been seeing an increasing number of

these reports over the past year or so.”

CDC’s investigation is to be carried out in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente’s

Northern California Division of Research and the US Armed Forces Institute of

Pathology.

Dr. Joe Selby, Director of the Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Division

of Research, said the study would proceed in three stages. In the first stage,

they will identify all members who may have seen a Kaiser Permanente physician

with symptoms suggestive of this condition at any point during the 18 months

between July 1 2006 and December 31, 2007, and determine whether they meet

eligibility criteria for the study. In stage two, all eligible members will be

invited to complete a comprehensive web based or telephone survey conducted by

the CDC that examines the duration and severity of a variety of symptoms. And in

stage three, those with active symptoms will be invited to the division of

research for an extensive clinical examination including collection of skin

biopsies, blood and urine samples.

In a paper [6] published in 2006, researchers from the Morgellons Research

Foundation [3] identified the states of California, Texas and Florida as having

the highest number of cases of Morgellons disease in the United States. Primary

clusters were noted in Los Angeles and San Francisco ( California ) and Houston,

Dallas and Austin ( Texas ). California accounted for 26 percent of cases in the

US , but all 50 US states and 15 other nations, including Canada , the UK ,

Australia , and the Netherlands , have reported cases of Morgellons disease. The

two main occupational groups reporting symptoms are nurses and teachers, with

nurses outnumbering teachers three to one. The risk factor common to both groups

is suspected to be the possibility of transmitted infectious agents.

Skin lesions and fibres may not be readily apparent in all individuals with the

disease, as family members of patients often report similar systemic disease

symptoms without skin symptoms. Families in which all members are affected often

have suspected simultaneous exposure to an inciting agent. Contact with soil or

waste products appears to be associated with the disease. Cases have been

reported in cats and dogs, as well as horses.

What finally prompted CDC to investigate the disease? The Morgellons Research

Foundation [3] was set up in 2002 in honour of Leitao, the Foundation’s

executive director. It publicises the plight of patients with similar conditions

and operates a registry of afflicted families. The Foundation also funds

scientific research. It has a Medical Advisory Board of seven with M.D. degree

and two with nursing degrees. In addition, it has a Board of Nursing with five

other nurses, and a Scientific Advisory Board of six scientists, all with Ph.D.

degree; one of which is Vitaly Citovsky.  It may have been Citovsky’s discovery

last year that finally persuaded the CDC to announce an investigation.

The Agrobacterium connection

Vitaly Citovsky is a professor of molecular and cell biology at Stony Brook

University in New York (SUNY). He is a world authority on the genetic

modification of cells by Agrobacterium, a soil bacterium causing crown gall

disease in plants, that has been widely used in creating genetically modified

(GM) plants since the 1980s because of its ability to transfer a piece of its

genetic material, the T-DNA on its tumour-inducing (Ti) plasmid to the plant

genome (see later for details).

Citovsky’s team took scanning electron microscope pictures of the fibres in or

extruding from the skin of patients suffering from Morgellons disease,

confirming that they are unlike any ordinary natural or synthetic fibres (see

Fig. 1, assembled from Citovsky’s website [8]).

Figure 1. Scanning electron microscope images of fibres from skin biopsies of

patients with Morgellons Disease -  a, white fibre with calcite, scale bar 10

mm; b, green fibre with alumina ‘rock’ protruding, scale bar 20 mm; c, various

ribbon-like, cylindrical and faceted fibres all coated with minerals, scale bar

10 mm; d, skin lesion with fibres stabbing through the epidermis, scale bar 300

mm

They also analysed patients for Agrobacterium DNA. Skin biopsy samples from

Morgellons patients were subjected to high-stringency polymerase chain reaction

(PCR) tests for genes encoded by the Agrobacterium chromosome and also for

Agrobacterium virulence (vir) genes and T-DNA on its Ti plasmid. They found that

“all Morgellons patients screened to date have tested positive for the presence

of Agrobacterium, whereas this microorganism has not been detected in any of the

samples derived from the control, healthy individuals.” Their preliminary

conclusion is that “Agrobacterium may be involved in the etiology and/or

progression” of Morgellons Disease.

The unpublished findings have been posted on a website [8] since January 2007.

They were further publicized in the “first ever” Morgellons conference in Austin

Texas, attended by 100 in March 2008 [9]. A growing list of people are

registered with Morgellons Disease, totalling 12 106 worldwide recorded by

Morgellons Research Foundation [3], as of 12 April 2008.

San Francisco physician, Raphael Stricker, one of only a few doctors who believe

the disease is real, said [9]. “There’s almost always some history of exposure

to dirt basically either from gardening or camping or something.”  He is one of

the co-authors on the Agrobacterium research done in SUNY, which reported

finding Agrobacterium DNA in all 5 Morgellons patients studied. Stricker

suggests it is transmitted by ticks, like Lyme disease, and in a recent survey

of 44 Morgellons patients in San Francisco , 43 of them also tested positive for

the bacterium causing Lyme disease. Another factor consistent with Agrobacterium

being a causative agent, if not the causative agent, is that when patients are

treated with antibacterials for their Lyme disease, remission of Morgellons

symptoms is seen in most of them [6].

Stricker also told his audience that Agrobacterium lives in the soil, and is

known to cause infections in animals and human beings with compromised immune

systems. It can cause skin lesions when injected into Swiss mice, a strain that

is immune deficient, he said.

At this point, the findings on the Agrobacterium connection are still

preliminary, as only seven patients have been studied. Nevertheless, the

implications are far-reaching if this connection is confirmed, as existing

evidence (reviewed below) suggests a link between Agrobacterium and genetic

engineering in the creation of new disease agents, and it is paramount for the

CDC investigation to include this aspect, if only to rule it out.

Agrobacterium and the genetic engineering connection

Agrobacterium not only infects human and other animal cells, it also transfers

genes into them. It was SUNY professor Citovsky and his team that made the

discovery some years ago [10]. Until then, the genetic engineering community had

assumed that Agrobacterium did not infect animal cells, and certainly would not

transfer genes into them.

Agrobacterium was found to transfer T-DNA into the chromosomes of human cells.

In stably transformed HeLa cells, the integration occurred at the right border

of the T-DNA, exactly as would happen when it is being transferred into a plant

cell genome, suggesting that Agrobacterium transforms human cells by a mechanism

similar to that involved in transforming plants cells (see Box 1). Human cancer

cells, neurons and kidney cells were all transformed with the Agrobacterium

T-DNA. Commenting on this research in 2001, Joe Cummins had warned of hazards to

laboratory and farm workers [11] (i-sis news11/12)

The Agrobacterium vector system for gene transfer

Since the discovery in the 1970s that Agrobacterium can transfer genes into

plants causing crown gall disease, the soil bacterium has been developed into a

vector for inserting desirable genes into the plant genome to create transgenic

(GM) plants [12].

 Agrobacterium transfers T-DNA – a small region of approximately 5 to 10 percent

of a resident tumour-inducing (Ti) or root-inducing (Ri) plasmid – into numerous

species of plants; and as later turns out, also to fungi, algae, and even animal

and human cells [13, 14] (see main text).

Transfer requires three major elements [13]: T-DNA border direct repeat

sequences of 25 base pairs that flank the T-DNA and delineate the region

transferred into the host, the virulence (vir) genes located on the Ti/Ri

plasmid, and various genes on the bacterial chromosome. Plant genes are also

involved in the successful integration of T-DNA [15]. The T-DNA contains

oncogenes (cancer genes or gene for forming tumours) and genes for synthesizing

opines; none of which is essential for T-DNA transfer, so they can be deleted

and replaced with genes of interest and selectable markers.

Furthermore, the vir genes and T-DNA region need not be on the same replicating

plasmid. This gave rise to the binary vector systems in which T-DNA and the vir

genes are located on separate replicating units. The T-DNA containing unit is

the binary vector and contains also the origin(s) of replication that could

function both in E. coli and Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and antibiotic

resistance marker genes used to select for the presence of the binary vector in

bacteria. The replicating unit containing the vir genes is the ‘helper’ plasmid.

Strains of Agrobacterium harbouring the two separate units are considered

‘disarmed’ if they do not contain oncogenes that could be transferred to a

plant.

The association of Morgellons Disease with dirt and soil where Agrobacterium

lives, the widespread use of Agrobacterium in genetic engineering of plants, and

the ability of Agrobacterium to infect human cells, all point towards a possible

role of genetic engineering in the aetiology of Morgellans disease via

Agrobacterium.

Extensive genetic manipulation of Agrobacterium does have the potential to

transform it into an aggressive human pathogen. Genetic engineering is nothing

if not enhanced and facilitated horizontal gene transfer and recombination,

which is widely acknowledged to be the main route for creating new pathogens.

Mae-Wan Ho was among an international panel of scientists have raised this very

issue in 1998, calling for a public enquiry into the possible contributions of

genetic engineering biotechnology to the aetiology of infectious diseases which

has greatly increased since genetic engineering began in the 1970s [16]. 

The epidemiological data of Morgellons Disease are very incomplete, and the

Morgellons Research Foundation’s registry of more than 12 000 families afflicted

worldwide is almost certainly only a fraction of the emerging epidemic. Still,

it is significant that the majority of the cases are in the United States , the

first country to release GM crops and remaining the top producer ever since.

There are other findings implicating Agrobacterium in transgenic plants released

into the environment, particularly during the early years of field trials, when

knowledge was poor and safety measures not as stringent as they may be today.

Agrobacterium persists in transgenic plants and is a vehicle for gene escape

By the late 1990s, the Agrobacterium vector system became very widely used, and

many GM crops created were commercially released.

Scientists at the Kinsealy Research and Development Centre in Dublin, Ireland,

and the ish Crop Research Institute in Dundee, Scotland, were concerned

that the inserted genes in plants would spread to wild populations by

cross-pollination or by horizontal gene transfer to unrelated species, which was

by then well-documented in the scientific literature.

They considered it “imperative” to address the risk posed in using Agrobacterium

as a tool in genetic engineering [17], given its ability to transfer genes to

plants. The transformation procedure involves inoculating the cells or tissue

explants with Agrobacterium and co-cultivation the plant cells and bacterium for

a short period, followed by the elimination of the bacterium with antibiotics.

However, if all the bacteria were not eliminated, then “release of these plants

may also result in release of the Agrobacterium [with the foreign genes]”, which

will serve as a vehicle for further gene escape, at least to other Agrobacterium

strains naturally present in the soil.

Although various antibiotics have been used to eliminate Agrobacterium following

transformation, the researchers stated that “very few authors actually test to

ensure that the antibiotics succeed.”

The difficulty is compounded because the bacterium can remain latent within the

plant tissue. So putting transgenic plant material into culture medium without

antibiotics and finding no Agrobacterium is no guarantee that the transgenic

plant is free of the bacterium, as was often assumed.

In their study, they investigated the ability of antibiotics to eliminate

Agrobacterium tumefaciens after transformation in three model systems: Brassica

(mustard), Solanum (potato), and Rubus (raspberry). The antibiotics

carbenicillin, cefataxime and ticaracillin were used respectively to eliminate

the bacterium at four times the minimum bactericidal concentration, as

recommended. They found that none of the antibiotic succeeded in eliminating

Agrobacterium.

The contamination levels increased from 12 to 16 weeks to such an extent that

transgenic Solanum cultures senesced and died. Contamination in shoot material

decreased over 16 to 24 weeks possibly because only the apical node was used in

further culture, but even that did not eliminate Agrobacterium from all the

samples; 24 percent remained contaminated at 24 weeks.

The binary vector was also present under non-selective conditions up to 6 months

after transformation, where approximately 50 percent of contaminated material

still harboured bacterial cells with the binary vector at high levels of about

107 colony forming units per gram.  The researchers pointed out: “Here is where

the possibility of gene escape arises. The presence of the disarmed

Agrobacterium in the tissue would not be a problem if the binary vector had been

lost, but now its survival and spread are real possibilities.” The binary vector

contains the foreign genes as well as antibiotic resistance marker gene(s).

There is no limit to the foreign genes that can be inserted into the binary

vector. A few years earlier, a research group in Israel had inserted a viroid

that causes disease in citrus fruits into the disarmed Ti plasmid of

Agrobacterium and used that to infect and transform several plant species

including tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Gynura aurantiaca, avocado (Persea

americana), and grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) grafted on Troyer citrange

(Pancirus trifoliate x C. sinensis) [18]. Extracts prepared from tissues of the

infected plants 38-90 days after inoculation were plated on selective media and

found to contain large amounts of the engineered bacteria.

The researchers warned of “newly formed combinations of persistently transmitted

viruses” coupled with “the opportunistic and systemically moving Agrobacterium

vector infectious to a wide host range might eventually cause infection and

damage to crop plants or natural vegetation” that are “not presently visited by

the traditional vectors of the virus disease.” 

In other words, Agrobacterium persisting in transgenic plants released into the

environment has the potential to spread new diseases, and to plants that

normally would not be infected by the disease agents. At the time, the

researchers did not know that Agrobacterium would also infect animals and

humans, and could spread new diseases to them as well.

Have these warnings been heeded by other researchers? There is no evidence they

have been taken on board. Agrobacterium has since been shown to transform at

least 80 different non-plant species including yeasts and other fungi, algae,

mammalian and human cells, also the gram positive bacterium Streptomyces

lividans. In a recent review, the researchers stated [14]: “Future research has

to show whether Agrobacterium-mediated transformation contributed to horizontal

gene transfer between microorganisms in the rhizosphere.”

But there is already evidence suggesting that Agrobacterium can indeed engage in

horizontal gene transfer with a wide range of bacteria in the soil. (For more on

horizontal gene transfer see [19]  Horizontal Gene Transfer from GMOs Does

Happen, SiS 38)

Agrobacterium gene transfer mechanisms similar to conjugation in bacteria

Ho first alerted regulators to the potential of Agrobacterium contaminating GM

plants to facilitate the escape of transgenes in 2003 (see Living with the Fluid

Genome [20] and The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World [21] ISIS publications)

.. By then, Gayle Ferguson and Jack Heinemann at the University of Canterbury,

Christchurh, New Zealand, had already pointed out in a review that the process

whereby Agrobacterium injects T-DNA into plant cells strongly resembles

conjugation, the normal mating process between bacteria [22].

Conjugation, mediated by certain bacterial plasmids, depends on a sequence

called the origin of transfer (oriT) on the DNA transferred. All other functions

- called tra for trans-acting functions - can be supplied from unlinked sources.

Thus, ‘disabled’ plasmids with no trans-acting functions, can nevertheless be

transferred by helper plasmids, the same as the binary vector system of

Agrobacterium (Box 1). The resemblance does not stop there.

The left and right borders of T-DNA are similar to oriT and can be replaced by

it. Furthermore, the disarmed T-DNA binay vector, lacking oncogenes as well as

virulence genes, can be helped by similar genes belonging to many other

pathogenic bacteria. The trans-kingdom gene transfer apparatus of Agrobacterium

and the conjugative systems of bacteria are both involved in transporting

macromolecules, not just DNA but also protein.

Thus, transgenic plants with contaminating Agrobacterium [20] “have a ready

route for horizontal gene escape, via Agrobacterium, helped by the ordinary

conjugative mechanisms of many other bacteria that cause diseases, which are

present in the environment.” In the process, new and exotic disease agents could

be created.

Investigations on the role of Agrobacterium in Morgellons Disease urgently

needed

The investigation launched by the CDC needs to clarify the role of Agrobacterium

in the aetiology of Morgellons Disease as a matter of urgency. This should

include:

Molecular characterization of Agrobacterium DNA sequences in Morgellans Disease

patients

Design of suitable probes for diagnostic purposes and for monitoring soil

samples and other suspected sources of infection

Introduction of stringent tests for Agrobacterium contamination for all

transgenic plants already released or about to be released into the

environment.   

 Global Research Articles by Mae-Wan Ho

 

 Global Research Articles by Joe Cummins

 

Please support Global Research

Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers.

 

 

*** exposing the hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT

LECTOR ***

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed

without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the

included information for research and educational purposes.

NOTE: Some links may require cut and paste into your Internet Browser.

Please check http://tinyurl. com/33c9yr  http://groups. google.com/ group/total_

truth_sciences/ topics?gvc= 2  more real news posts and support the truth!

(sorry but don't have time to email all posts)

free book download: http://www.lulu. com/content/ 165077  or  http://www.lulu.

com/items/ volume_63/ 165000/165077/ 21/print/ 165077.pdf 

http://blogs. albawaba. com/alexanderjam es/   http://blogs. albawaba.

com/jam es/page/links   http://bb.domaindlx .com/alexjames99 9  

*** Revealing the hidden Truth For Educational & Further Research Purposes only.

*** Welcome to Real News Edited excerpts, non-partisan, pro-truth-honesty-

peace, and anti-war-lies- crime. The purpose is to expose corruptions, frauds,

deceptions, lies, criminal plans, cover-ups and free-speech silencing by

powerful people in governments, foundations, corporations and media, which are

done using the name of democracy, human rights, false interpretations of

religions, cults, occults, patriotism, economy, business, media, elections,

justice, charity, etc., and are used to trick the public into hatred & wars and

out of their lives, money and freedoms, while the propaganda we are subjected to

makes us believe that we have evolved to where such things cannot happen

[remember slavery, apartheid…]. Please share what you learn with others who do

not have access to the internet. This is only a tip of the iceberg. Stop the

hatred that is used to promote the

dehumanization of the victims of predatory aggressions; spread the truth;free

your mind from being a Zioncon occupied territory of the neo-feudal lords by

rejecting the mainstream news propaganda. Caution: real news may induce a kind

of schizophrenia because it provides a true vision of reality which is so

different from the one we are presented by the mass media spins. Latest real

infonews available at alternate news. *****

Recent Activity

 1

New Links

 3

New FilesVisit Your Group

Meditation and

Lovingkindness

A Yahoo! Group

to share and learn.

Yahoo! Health

Early Detection

Know the symptoms

of breast cancer.

Drive Traffic

Sponsored Search

can help increase

your site traffic.

..