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Don't drop context: "genes from entirely separate species"

Jellyfish & potatoes: "A full-length cDNA corresponding to the RNA genome of Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) was modified by inserting cDNA that encoded the jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the P5 gene near its 3 end." I'd say jellyfish and potato are separate species...

Or soil bacteria & potatoes: "Colorado potato beetle (CPB) resistance has been achieved through the incorporation of a gene for the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein into potatoes." Again, two separate species which wouldn't normally have any mechanism to transfer genes. Oh, and this example is in our food chain.

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No surprise, the impact factor of the journal this system was published in is very low, just 3.36 . Good journals have at least 5-10, the top ones an impact factor of 20 and higher ... http://vir.sgmjournals.org/

Like this or this? Nearly every major historic scientific publication can be found on the internet nowadays. Biology is not my area though, so I will not try to dig deeper in this.

One of the assumptions is safe: low oxygen environment. This bacterium does not "eat" metallic iron, but reduces dissolved iron oxide which requires a reducing (I.E. anaerobic) environment. How the existing iron structure turns into iron oxide is another question. My brief poking around on the internet (I'm not going to call it research) seems to indicate that these bacteria live in conjunction with many other bacteria and fungi in an associated called a rusticle which only seems to form on wrought iron. Modern steel should not be affected by this particular association, and chances are anything exposed to open seawater probably would be naturally exposed to all of the component organisms needed. Weaponizing this phenomenon would probably end up being more like developing some sort of fertilizing agent that hastens the colonization and growth rate of the appropriate colonies of organisms and would likely either be so bulky as to be noticed during routine maintenance, or require multiple reapplications which would increase the likelihood of being discovered. I really don't foresee this being more effective than traditional sabotage methods.

Researching this phenomenon is probably far more likely to give us a more thorough understanding of oxidation and improvements in the rust resistance of steel.

Who knows... the whole thing seems to be speculation at this point. After a bit of digging I think I found the paper that is being referenced here. It looks like they isolated some organism and figured out its taxonomy using molecular techniques and very little research on the bacteria's actual metabolism. For all I know this particular bacteria could be simply feeding on those that are doing the actual oxidation and reduction. It looks like I'd be able to learn a bit more on the topic of bacterial mediated corrosion from this document. Maybe I'll have that digested by the time this article comes up as a dupe.

Because Halomonas species are typically halophiles, they are usually found in water sources with high salinity levels, such as the Dead Sea and even within the frigid waters of Antarctica.

In the paper you can see where this bug sits in the phylogenetic tree.

I'm guessing the Midway Atoll has warmer water but you might find different microbes. I guess I'm more curious if the researchers think this bug already existed or if it was a neighboring microbe in the phylogenetic tree that colonized titanic and prospered, mutating slowly to what it is today -- accustomed to the iron of the wreck? If you drop anything with high surface area into the ocean and check it out fifty years later, it might be the norm to find some microbe busily breaking it down with a slight twist ...

'Not as dangerous as you'd think...Viruses pick up DNA strands from the host as they are made by the hosts cells, this is primarily what causes rapid mutation and why H1N1 contains human, swine, and avian DNA-this strain has been transmitted between these three animals'

The Flu virus is a rather unusual case - its genome (in fact RNA rather than DNA) is made up of 8 segments that can easily be swapped around ('reassorted') when two different strains infect the same animal (8 segments with 2 versions of each = 2^8 = 256 possible new viruses). This isn't true for the adenovirus used in the article, which has an unsegmented DNA genome, but there's still some concern that a therapeutic strain might 'recombine' with a wild-type strain:

http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/full/89/2/380

This is one reason why you have to be careful when adding (e.g.) new genes to viruses of this type (as in gene therapy). It's rather less of a concern when doing the sort of experiment described in the original article, where the replication of the virus is partially blocked rather than enhanced, and where no new genes are added.

Weak acid adaptation: the stress response that confers yeasts with resistance to organic acid food preservatives

Peter Piper1, Claudia Ortiz Calderona,1, Kostas Hatzixanthis1 and Mehdi Mollapour1

Frequently the decomposing plant materials where fungi grow as saprophytes will contain high concentrations of weak organic acids. Not only are acetate and lactate products of bacterial fermentation, but acetate is also secreted in high levels by certain yeasts, such as the Brettanomyces and Dekkera that have attracted attention as spoilage agents of wine fermentations (Pretorius, 2000Down ). Saccharomyces cerevisiae is frequently inhibited by these acids produced by competitor microbes. To counteract their effects, it is endowed with a stress response that acts to reduce the possibility that the weak acid will accumulate within its cells to high, potentially toxic, levels.

Although weak acid adaptation probably evolved to facilitate growth at low pH in the presence of weak organic acids, it poses problems for the food industry as it leads to substantial increases in resistance to the major organic acid food preservatives. As a result, it is often necessary to use these preservatives at millimolar rather than micromolar levels in order to prevent yeast spoilage of low pH foods and beverages. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the mechanisms of weak acid resistance in S. cerevisiae and Zygosaccharomyces bailii, two important food spoilage yeasts. Both organisms are able to maintain lower intracellular levels of weak acid than would be expected on the basis of a free equilibration across the cell membrane. Nevertheless, it is unlikely they achieve this by identical strategies. S. cerevisiae expends considerable energy in actively extruding acid from the cell, high levels of a specific ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter (Pdr12) being induced in its plasma membrane in order to catalyse this efflux. Z. bailii, in contrast, does not show major changes to its plasma membrane protein composition, but may place more reliance instead on limiting the initial diffusional entry of the acid to the cells. Z. bailii, unlike S. cerevisiae, can also catalyse oxidative degradation of two of the most commonly used food preservatives, sorbate and benzoate.

More at http://mic.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/full/147/10 /2635?view=long&pmid=11577142

Well, that is a bold statement to make, considering that the neuramidase inhibitors connection to influenza have been known at least since the 70-ties. And Roches patents for the specific neuramidase inhibitor that is in "Tamiflu" were filed in 1999.

To the "INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY"? Here is what I assume is the abstract relating to the find. http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/55 /1/473

The abstract of the research paper says that this 'new' bacteria, Carnobacterium pleistocenium, has a 99.8% similarity to Carnobacterium alterfunditum, as determined by gene sequence. I don't have access to this journal, so perhaps someone can fill in the details (how do these frozen bacteria differ from their modern day relatives and/or descendants?).

Phylochronology is a new field that proposes studying molecular evolution on both spatial and temporal scales, using the tools of aDNA and paleontology. Here, however, we have living samples with which to make a comparison. Thus, there's the potential to compare not just nucleotide sequence, but differences in morphology, development, and evolvability.

Allmost all the DMS produced in the oceans originally came from DMSP produced by algae (some corals have symbiotic algae). Some DMSP is broken down to DMS by the algae themselves, but bacteria seem to have a major role in breaking down DMSP to DMS, as well as to another compound, methanethiol, that is not released into the atmosphere in large amounts. Interestingly, the genome of a bacterium that carries out both pathways of DMSP degradation is sequenced. Hopefully this will soon allow us to find more about these two competing fates of DMSP. If you really want more information on this bacteria, you could read the discription paper.

bugbox

The actual paper is:
Toole, D. A., and D. A. Siegel (2004), Light-driven cycling of dimethylsulfide (DMS) in the Sargasso Sea: Closing the loop, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L09308, doi:10.1029/2004GL019581.
Unfortunately, you must subscribe to get more than just the abstract.

DMSP and DMS cycles are more complex than this brief article reports. DMSP is produced by algae, and some DMSP is broken down to DMS by algae as well. However, bacteria seem to have a major role in breaking down DMSP to DMS, as well as to another compound, methanethiol, that is not released into the atmosphere in large amounts.

Interestingly, the genome of a bacterium that carries out both pathways of DMSP degradation is being sequenced. Hopefully this will soon allow us to find more about these two competing fates of DMSP. If you really want more information on this bacteria, you could read a discription paper.