Mr. Joseph Hinnebusch

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  www.infeksiyon.org/en/Detail_en.asp?Ctg=2&Article=640 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/3/2007    Last Visited: 12/3/2007  

  Dr. B. Joseph Hinnebusch, of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana,
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  septicemia, that were responsible for the emergence of plague," Dr. Hinnebusch and his associates conclude.

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  Articles and Index 3 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/3/2002    Last Visited: 4/13/2003  

  "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is transmitted, like all other enteric (gut) bacteria, by the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water," Joseph Hinnebusch, a researcher at Rocky Mountain Laboratories who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
  
  "It causes gastroenteritis, diarrhea, sort of like shigella and salmonella," he added, naming two common causes of food poisoning."Yet that is the closest relative of Y. pestis."
  
  Writing in the journal Science, Hinnebusch and colleagues said they looked at a gene carried by Y. pestis but not by Y. pseudotuberculosis.
  
  It was thought the gene produced a toxin -- which would explain why plague is so much more deadly than the stomach upset.
  
  ...
  In fact, Hinnebusch said, the gene has a more complex function.It controls production of an enzyme known as PLD, which allows Yersinia to survive in the gut of a flea.
  
  "It is known that the flea gut is a hostile environment," said Hinnebusch, whose lab is part of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases."The flea takes a blood meal and starts to digest it immediately.It seems to be a fairly hostile environment for bacteria to survive in."
  
  But, through an unknown mechanism, PLD lets the bacteria survive, so it can multiply in the flea and be transmitted when it bites a rat -- or a human.The bacteria then gets into the blood and causes plague.
  
  ...
  "If (you) look at the DNA sequence of this enzyme, it is clear that it is not typical Yersinia DNA," Hinnebusch said."It is most closely related to similar genes in soil bacteria and in plants.So it seems pretty clear that this gene was transferred from an unrelated cell."
  
  Bacteria are known to do this, sometimes promiscuously, in a process known as horizontal transfer.For a life form that reproduces mostly by splitting, it is the closest thing to sexual reproduction, which gives plants and animals their ability to evolve and change with each generation.
  
  ...
  Picking up this gene could have been the single most important factor in turning a stomach bug into an agent of mass killing, Hinnebusch said.
  
  "A scene that you can imagine is that once Yersinia was able to survive in the flea gut, there would be the occasional rodent in which the disease caused septicemia (infection of the blood) and so a flea could have picked it up," he said.
  
  This would have led to selective pressure.Variants of Yersinia that were better able to invade blood, and those that were more virulent, would have survived better, and come to dominate.
  
  Only when people learned that fleas were the plague carriers and developed basic hygiene measures were they able to defeat it.
  
  Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020425/sc nm/science plague dc 1

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  Articles and Index 3 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/20/2001    Last Visited: 5/13/2004  

  "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is transmitted, like all other enteric (gut) bacteria, by the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water," Joseph Hinnebusch, a researcher at Rocky Mountain Laboratories who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
  
  "It causes gastroenteritis, diarrhea, sort of like shigella and salmonella," he added, naming two common causes of food poisoning."Yet that is the closest relative of Y. pestis."
  
  Writing in the journal Science, Hinnebusch and colleagues said they looked at a gene carried by Y. pestis but not by Y. pseudotuberculosis.
  ...
  In fact, Hinnebusch said, the gene has a more complex function.It controls production of an enzyme known as PLD, which allows Yersinia to survive in the gut of a flea.
  
  "It is known that the flea gut is a hostile environment," said Hinnebusch, whose lab is part of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.
  ...
  "If (you) look at the DNA sequence of this enzyme, it is clear that it is not typical Yersinia DNA," Hinnebusch said.
  ...
  Picking up this gene could have been the single most important factor in turning a stomach bug into an agent of mass killing, Hinnebusch said.
  
  "A scene that you can imagine is that once Yersinia was able to survive in the flea gut, there would be the occasional rodent in which the disease caused septicemia (infection of the blood) and so a flea could have picked it up," he said.
  
  This would have led to selective pressure.

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  Articles and Index 3 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/16/2001    Last Visited: 10/27/2002  

  "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is transmitted, like all other enteric (gut) bacteria, by the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water," Joseph Hinnebusch, a researcher at Rocky Mountain Laboratories who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
  
  "It causes gastroenteritis, diarrhea, sort of like shigella and salmonella," he added, naming two common causes of food poisoning."Yet that is the closest relative of Y. pestis."
  
  Writing in the journal Science, Hinnebusch and colleagues said they looked at a gene carried by Y. pestis but not by Y. pseudotuberculosis.
  
  It was thought the gene produced a toxin -- which would explain why plague is so much more deadly than the stomach upset.
  
  GENE MAKES FLEA GUT COZY
  
  In fact, Hinnebusch said, the gene has a more complex function.It controls production of an enzyme known as PLD, which allows Yersinia to survive in the gut of a flea.
  
  "It is known that the flea gut is a hostile environment," said Hinnebusch, whose lab is part of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases."The flea takes a blood meal and starts to digest it immediately.It seems to be a fairly hostile environment for bacteria to survive in."
  
  But, through an unknown mechanism, PLD lets the bacteria survive, so it can multiply in the flea and be transmitted when it bites a rat -- or a human.The bacteria then gets into the blood and causes plague.
  
  ...
  "If (you) look at the DNA sequence of this enzyme, it is clear that it is not typical Yersinia DNA," Hinnebusch said."It is most closely related to similar genes in soil bacteria and in plants.So it seems pretty clear that this gene was transferred from an unrelated cell."
  
  Bacteria are known to do this, sometimes promiscuously, in a process known as horizontal transfer.For a life form that reproduces mostly by splitting, it is the closest thing to sexual reproduction, which gives plants and animals their ability to evolve and change with each generation.
  
  ...
  Picking up this gene could have been the single most important factor in turning a stomach bug into an agent of mass killing, Hinnebusch said.
  
  "A scene that you can imagine is that once Yersinia was able to survive in the flea gut, there would be the occasional rodent in which the disease caused septicemia (infection of the blood) and so a flea could have picked it up," he said.
  
  This would have led to selective pressure.Variants of Yersinia that were better able to invade blood, and those that were more virulent, would have survived better, and come to dominate.
  
  Only when people learned that fleas were the plague carriers and developed basic hygiene measures were they able to defeat it.
  
  Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020425/sc nm/science plague dc 1

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  Boston Globe Online / Health | Science - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/18/2002    Last Visited: 5/18/2002  

  Joseph Hinnesbusch of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hampton, Mont., and his colleagues have shown that the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is very similar to another bacterium that just causes mild stomach upsets.The key deadly difference seems to be a gene that codes for an enzyme that lets the plague survive in the guts of fleas.Once they've made their way from fleas into people, this could have led to increased virulence as evolutionary pressures favored strains of the flea-borne bacterium that could live in human blood.The plague killed off about a third of the people in 14th-century Europe.
  
  SCIENCE MUSINGSIntelligent design happens naturally

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  Boston Globe Online / Health | Science / Plague gene - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/14/2002    Last Visited: 5/14/2002  

  Joseph Hinnesbusch of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hampton, Mont., and his colleagues have shown that the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is very similar to another bacterium that just causes mild stomach upsets.The key deadly difference seems to be a gene that codes for an enzyme that lets the plague survive in the guts of fleas.Once they've made their way from fleas into people, this could have led to increased virulence as evolutionary pressures favored strains of the flea-borne bacterium that could live in human blood.
  ...
  Joseph Hinnesbusch of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hampton, Mont., and his colleagues have shown that the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is very similar to another bacterium that just causes mild stomach upsets.The key deadly difference seems to be a gene that codes for an enzyme that lets the plague survive in the guts of fleas.Once they've made their way from fleas into people, this could have led to increased virulence as evolutionary pressures favored strains of the flea-borne bacterium that could live in human blood.The plague killed off about a third of the people in 14th-century Europe.
  
  ref.: Science, April 26, 2002.

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  Bubonic Plague Traced to Ancient Egypt - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/10/2004    Last Visited: 10/5/2005  

  "It's usually thought that the plague entered from the East," said B. Joseph Hinnebusch, a microbiologist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana.The new study suggests that North Africa could also be the source of the epidemic, he said.
  
  The bacteria-caused plague is more than a grim historical footnote today.The African island of Madagascar experienced outbreaks in the late 1990s, and some worry about the plague's potential use as an agent of bioterrorism.
  
  Information about past epidemics could help scientists predict where new outbreaks would occur and better understand how the disease spreads, Hinnebusch said.

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  FutureTalk.org - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/17/2001    Last Visited: 2/28/2005  

  "It's usually thought that the plague entered from the East," said B. Joseph Hinnebusch, a microbiologist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana.The new study suggests that North Africa could also be the source of the epidemic, he said.
  
  The bacteria-caused plague is more than a grim historical footnote today.The African island of Madagascar experienced outbreaks in the late 1990s, and some worry about the plague's potential use as an agent of bioterrorism.
  
  Information about past epidemics could help scientists predict where new outbreaks would occur and better understand how the disease spreads, Hinnebusch said.
  ...
  "Most people think of the plague as a historical disease," said Hinnebusch, who conducts plague research for the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
  ...
  "There are so many unanswered questions about the plague," Hinnebusch said.

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  Missoulian: - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/16/2003    Last Visited: 4/16/2003  

  Public lecture on bubonic plague - Joe Hinnebusch of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories will address "Bubonic Plague: The Natural History of the Black Death from Medieval to Modern Times" on Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. in the Hamilton Middle School auditorium.Call 363-9324 for more information.

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  Missoulian: - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/9/2003    Last Visited: 4/9/2003  

  Public lecture on bubonic plague - Joe Hinnebusch of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories will address "Bubonic Plague: The Natural History of the Black Death from Medieval to Modern Times" on Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. in the Hamilton Middle School auditorium.Call 363-9324 for more information.
  
  The Parenting Place - Call 728-5437 to sign up for these upcoming programs:
  
  Toddler care class, an eight-week session focusing on caring for kids aged 18 months to 5 years, on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. starting April 8.A free children's program is offered while classes are in session with appropriate activities that relate to the parent classes.
  
  Parent Strategy Group every Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

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