genes from bacteria to fungus

[Slovenia]

The link many of us suspect between bacteria and fungus is (in my opinion) admirably mentioned in an article in today's Daily Telegraph in the UK: The science behind that fresh seaside smell - Telegraph - though I attach the text below)
The report is about a researcher investigating the "seaside smell". Lower down you will find references to a gene that has transferred from bacteria to fungus - and that perhaps there's a symbiotic relationship for seaweed in that the fungus could prevent uv light or saltwater from killing it. The fungus type is Aspergillus. In laboratory research they used E.Coli to achieve gene transfer from one to the other.
I cannot help thinking that a lot of research currently going on in labs around the world - if only they knew it - could have significant implications in understanding Morgellons too. Perhaps it could be a way of getting more done for us - by persuading researchers to tack on Morgellons to their brief!
Here's the text:
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Think of the tangy smell of the sea, so evocative of summer holidays, the scream of seagulls and sand between your toes. Where does it come from? Ozone? Fresh sea air? Actually, the truth is slightly less tantalising: it's a gas released by bacteria.
Two years ago Andy Johnston, a professor of biology at the University of East Anglia, identified that the smell of the sea came from a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Now, he has managed to crack the entire biochemical pathway by which the scent is produced. DMS turns out to be an important chemical found in many natural processes, such as cloud formation. Birds love the smell and will flock towards tiny concentrations. It's even added to processed foods to give a savoury note: small amounts can impart the flavour of cabbages, tomatoes, butter and cream – even lemons or roast chicken, according to Prof Johnston.
DMS is derived from a compound called dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), which is produced by phytoplankton, single-celled organisms found in the sea. DMSP is incredibly abundant – around a billion tonnes are formed every year. Bacteria feed on it and convert it into DMS. This is why birds are attracted to the smell: it indicates a plankton bloom, and therefore the presence of fish feeding on the marine plants.
Prof Johnston used genetics to try to understand how DMS is produced. He took some mud from Stiffkey Marsh in Norfolk. He isolated the bacteria that feed on DMSP from the mud, extracted the relevant genes and inserted them into E. coli, a bacterium used in laboratories.
"I knew we'd isolated the right genes," he says, "because the incubator smelled like a beach. When the concentration rose too high, it smelled like rotting cabbage." Thanks to its distinctive smell (most people notice it at 0.02 parts per million), DMS is often added to otherwise odour-free gases so that leaks can be detected.
Prof Johnston's latest finding is that bacteria use three different mechanisms to make this gas. He likens it to taking Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles by Cadillac or by train: "You're making the same trip, but the methods used are poles apart." His research will be published shortly in the journal Environmental Microbiology.
In addition, Prof Johnston has found that other organisms can produce DMS, too. "Unlike animals which only have sex with members of their own species, bacteria are less restrained. They can have sex with almost anything that moves – they don't give a damn who they transfer genes to," he says. "We found that genes to break down DMSP had been transferred from bacteria to fungi. That's passing genes across animal kingdoms – it's the equivalent of a mouse having sex with a sycamore tree."
Prof Johnston is now working in collaboration with the J Craig Venter Institute in America, whose scientists are sampling millions of genes from marine bacteria. The Venter Global Ocean Sampling project shows where genes are found in the ocean and in what quantities. "I can see that genes for one mechanism of creating DMS are abundant in the Galapagos Islands but not in other areas, but the genes for a different mechanism are widespread in the Sargasso and the Pacific, all from the comfort of my own lab," explains Prof Johnston.
It is not known why some bacteria species are prevalent in particular areas, nor why there appear to be hotspots around coral reefs. Equally mysterious is the fact that we still do not know why DMSP, from which the seaside gas is produced, even exists: it could be a way of protecting seaweed against the sun's ultraviolet light, or the saltiness of the sea.
DMS gas has important commercial applications. The fungus to which it has transferred is a type of Aspergillus, used in soy sauce, sake and tofu production, and one of the major components that gives truffles their earthy odour. Meanwhile, the US-based Gaylord Chemical Corporation, the largest manufacturer of DMS, produces it for use in petroleum refining and in the hydrocarbon industry to synthesise ethylene, a chemical that has a wide variety of uses from creating plastic bags to hastening the ripening of fruit.
"This is just the start," says Prof Johnston, "We need to know more. But one thing I have learnt along the way is that it is microbes that drive this planet – everything else on earth is mere decoration."

[Slovenia]

I have just written to Prof. Johnston:

Dear Prof. Johnston

I read of your work in today's Daily telegraph and couldn't help thinking your research may well have significance in the investigation of the so-called Morgellons Disease.

I am sure you know of it but briefly, it causes all kinds of strange fibres - most notably black specks - to emerge from the skin. The specks are not specks at all but bundles of filaments. Virtually all sufferers have Lyme disease too plus one or two other co-infections. There are reports of thousands of sufferers from around the world but it seems the greatest concentrations are around coastlines.

To persuade governments and agencies to divert funding to what is after all, a very weird disease, is proving an uphill struggle. A great many of us feel there is a most definite link here between bacteria and fungi - we even see fungal type spores and lines emerging. What's more in one study it was found that all Morgellons patients in a group had agrobacteria in their bodies whereas all those in a control group without Morgellons did not.

I realise you are a very busy man but wanted to write to you to point out what I think could be a very strong link to the very work you are doing and ask if maybe you and the the university could perhaps consider examining this disease as part of its current work.

With very best wishes