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DNA Sequence Yields Clues to Germany's 'Super Toxic' E. coli outbreak
ScienceInsider ^ | 2 June 2011 | Martin Enserink

Posted on 06/02/2011 4:18:36 PM PDT by neverdem

Just from the high number of deaths and severe cases, scientists and public health experts battling Germany's massive E. coli outbreak knew they were up against something unusual. Now, early results from sequencing projects of the enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strain appear to confirm that a never-before-seen hybrid, combining the worst of several bacterial strains, is causing the havoc.

The Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), in Shenzhen, China—which today announced that it has sequenced the microbe's entire 5.2-million-base-pair genome—says that its acquisition of several virulence genes make this EHEC strain "supertoxic."

The outbreak, which has caused mayhem in European trade relations, is still growing; so far, more than 16 patients have died. The origin of the microbe remains a riddle; cucumbers from Spain, originally fingered as the potential source, were acquitted on Tuesday and have not been replaced by other suspects. All researchers know is that raw vegetables are the most likely carrier.

Scientific results announced in two press releases today—both also intended to tout the extraordinary speed of today's sequencing technology—suggest that within the microbe's DNA lie clues to its aggressive nature.

The second came from Life Technologies Corporation, which manufactures so-called third-generation sequencing machines. Today, the company announced that sequencing at its lab in Darmstadt, Germany, in collaboration with the nearby University of Münster, "strongly suggests that the bacterium … is a new hybrid type of pathogenic E. coli strains." Spokespeople for the company in the United States and Germany could not provide details today. "Further analyses on Ion PGMT"—the company's flagship sequencing machine—"will confirm [the] data," the press release promised.

BGI, meanwhile, says that the microbe's genome—which it says took just 3 days to sequence, also using Life Technologies equipment—reveals that it shares 93% of its sequence with EAEC 55989 E. coli, a strain isolated in the Central African Republic and known to cause serious diarrhea. It appears to have acquired several genes that make it more pathogenic, however, probably in a process called horizontal gene transfer, by which microbes exchange bits of genetic information.

In an e-mail to ScienceInsider, Yang Bicheng, director of BGI's marketing department, wrote that one gene fragment appears to have come from another food-borne pathogen, Salmonella enterica, while other genes are highly homologous to those found in other, phylogenetically distinct E. coli strains, including a strain called O25:H4-ST131.

BGI, which has made the sequence available for researchers to download, says the analysis also confirmed that the microbe is resistant to many antibiotics. These include aminoglycoside, the macrolides, and the beta-lactams—"all of which makes antibiotic treatment extremely difficult," according to the press release. However, German EHEC patients aren't treated with antibiotics; most scientists believe they make matters worse, because killing EHEC results in the release of more toxin.

Yang acknowledged that finding the resistance genes may not be clinically relevant, but says they may help understand how the strain arose. "The evolutionary process … of this very strange hybrid strain may be a very interesting scientific story," Yang wrote in his e-mail.

Microbial genomicist Frederick Blattner of the University of Wisconsin, Madison—who worked for almost 15 years to sequence the first E. coli strain and finished in 1997—says the results have to be considered preliminary; it's not clear whether BGI assembled the entire genome from its sequenced pieces, he notes, and usually in such efforts, a number of stretches need to be resequenced. Still, "they did this at an amazing speed, and it looks like they found some very intriguing information," Blattner says.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: ecoli; ehec; microbiology
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To: editor-surveyor

” 35% H2O2 “

??

(High School Chem Lab was a long, long, long, long, long time ago...)


21 posted on 06/02/2011 5:12:14 PM PDT by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
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To: Uncle Ike

I believe that’s hydrogen peroxide.


22 posted on 06/02/2011 5:20:02 PM PDT by angryoldfatman
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To: editor-surveyor
I just bought a case of 35% H2O2 last week.

Expect a visit from DHS.

23 posted on 06/02/2011 5:20:16 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 861 of our national holiday from reality. - Obama really isn't one of us)
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To: editor-surveyor
Sounds like this E-coli might have designer genes.

its acquisition of several virulence genes make this EHEC strain "supertoxic."

A bug doesn't pick up "several virulence genes" from a random mutation or two.

24 posted on 06/02/2011 5:23:37 PM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 861 of our national holiday from reality. - Obama really isn't one of us)
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To: angryoldfatman

Funny you mention that....In reading the Hidden Hitler....that was the conclusion of the author....his best guess at to what exactly was Hitler’s sexual perversion among homosexuality.

All his chauffeurs and close friends (Roehm, Hess) were homosexuals and they think he was a homosexual prostitute in his 20’s and in the army, judging from his acquaintances, and where he was living and with whom....

That is partly why the Nazis had the book burning. All condemnation of homosexuality was for political purposes only —to get massive popular support since most Germans had a trace of Christianity left, although Christianity and morality had been demeaned and entertainment had become most vulgar and homoerotic by the 1920’s in the Weimar Republic.

It was the Sexual Institute of Research which had done extensive studies on sexual perversions which had interviews with over 90% of the Brownshirts. They needed to erase their history so the German people could be fooled when they talked about deviancy, etc.—wiping it out of the Aryan race—when virtually all the Nazi officials were sexual deviates.

Homosexuality was considered the National Vice of Germany by all foreign diplomats and it was the standing joke to watch your back then dealing with the Germans (esp. the ones in power).

More politically incorrect hidden knowledge, so not to offend the lies of the MSM and the elites “homosexuality is good and natural” crowd:

http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/books/pinkswastika/html/the_pinkswastika_4th_edition_-_final.htm


25 posted on 06/02/2011 5:24:46 PM PDT by savagesusie
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To: dljordan

500 million, but what’s 495 million between friends? :)

I only remember the number because it works out to roughly 10% of the current population, and a reptile-studying biologist in Texas talked cheerfully about killing off 90% of the people on the planet a few years back:

http://tinyurl.com/424ow2a


26 posted on 06/02/2011 5:25:58 PM PDT by angryoldfatman
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To: editor-surveyor

On second thought... anybody looked into Round up Ready GMO seed which contaminates every crop for miles and miles!
Monsanto needs to be shut down.


27 posted on 06/02/2011 5:30:34 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: savagesusie

Thanks for that susie. I read the Pink Swastika (or at least a good portion of it) a few years back and it opened my eyes to a lot of things. Now I use it to enrage any homosexual activists I encounter.

Even an internet novice can notice some patterns about particular countries and predilections to certain perversions. Homosexuality is so rampant that it is not considered specific enough to be a true perversion; they now have to subdivide it into smaller and smaller categories with ever more twisted and sick behaviors.

The Marquis de Sade would be amazed and proud at how things have turned out:

http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/sade.htm


28 posted on 06/02/2011 5:44:12 PM PDT by angryoldfatman
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To: neverdem; NWFLConservative; silverleaf

Ping......


29 posted on 06/02/2011 6:01:19 PM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: angryoldfatman

Thanks for the de Sade site....Never ever read any of his stuff. What I did read was how a young boy about 13 in England in late 1800’s found a book of de Sades in his uncle’s library and reenacted sexual torture on a little neighbor girl and boy. It was horrific. It was the crime of the decade in England when it happened. I ran into it when I was doing a report on the dehumanizing effects of pornography in society.

People need to understand that ideas have incredible consequences and the push to accept homosexual behavior as “good” it to make immorality moral. Immorality is evil and it always, always has evil consequences.

It is narcissism and lust. There is no virtue in the act—none.


30 posted on 06/02/2011 6:04:29 PM PDT by savagesusie
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To: angryoldfatman; colorado tanker

Eat sh!7 and die?.......


31 posted on 06/02/2011 6:08:16 PM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: Red Badger

So it only took the Chinese 3 days to tell them what it is

Now they need to know why it is

and where it is

I just wonder what the mortality rate will be for the almost 500 souls (thus far) afflicted with this new deadly HUS

Would love to be a researcher trying to find the common link among the victims.

Meanwhile, I looked up homemade recipes for fruit and veggie wash and I’m using it from now on!


32 posted on 06/02/2011 6:12:05 PM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: Red Badger

if shit fertilizer kills people, why are there 3 billion Chinese and Indians walking around?


33 posted on 06/02/2011 6:13:46 PM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: silverleaf

Natural selection?........


34 posted on 06/02/2011 6:15:53 PM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: angryoldfatman

yeah, you’re right, it probably has nothing to do with that since 70% of the victims are young-middle aged women and the epidemic started less than 30 days ago


35 posted on 06/02/2011 6:16:27 PM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: angryoldfatman

yeah, you’re right, it probably has nothing to do with that since 70% of the victims are young-middle aged women and the epidemic started less than 30 days ago


36 posted on 06/02/2011 6:16:43 PM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: angryoldfatman

“500 million, but what’s 495 million between friends? :)”

Oops! You’re right of course.


37 posted on 06/02/2011 6:17:49 PM PDT by dljordan ("Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered.")
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To: silverleaf

We just ate supper about an hour ago.
We had tomatoes,fried okra, purple hull peas with snaps, and fried zuchini.
All of it came out of our garden.
I don’t have to worry about third world diseases, but we wash everything anyway........


38 posted on 06/02/2011 6:22:09 PM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: null and void

You are correct.

That is why it was almost certainly from horizontal gene transfer, as the article says.


39 posted on 06/02/2011 6:26:13 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: Red Badger

So far it’s only a guess this bacteria came from raw vegetables, or is confined now to those vegetables

It could have been passed any number of ways
Even on money. Ever wonder who handled the money in your wallet? Did he/she wash after flushing?
Ever touch the handle of a shopping cart? A public door knob? A library book?

Unfortunately, no man is an island in this world.


40 posted on 06/02/2011 6:29:07 PM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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