Word: bacterium
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What proved most significant about Berg's experiment, and helped win the prize, were the steps that immediately preceded it. The virus he wanted to introduce into the bacterium was itself a hybrid. By ingenious use of enzymes that can cut, patch and join nucleic acids, he and his colleagues managed to splice DNA from a bacterial virus into SV40's genes, forming a single closed loop. That was the first time scientists had been able to link the genes of two distinctly different species, and thus created the prospect of producing entirely new life forms...
Recombinant DNA, or gene splicing, is a kind of modern alchemy. Scientists obtain DNA for a desired product, such as human insulin, and insert it into the DNA of a laboratory strain of a common intestinal bacterium. The bacterium, following directions from the new DNA, then produces the insulin. Scientists believe that the technique can be used to form a number of healthcare, agricultural and industrial products more cheaply and easily than ever before (see MEDICINE...
...initial signs include high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness, followed by a sunburn-like rash with peeling of skin, especially on the hands and feet. There may also be a sharp drop in blood pressure and, in severe cases, fatal shock. The bacterium may be carried into the vagina during insertion of the absorbent pluglike devices. Rely may be doing its job all too well. It may be creating an ideal breeding ground for the staph bacterium...
First identified in Colorado two years ago, TSS is caused by an agent of the common Staphylococcus aureus bacterium, often found in abscesses. Since January the U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta has recorded 344 cases, including 28 deaths. All but 16 of the cases involved menstruating women, usually under 30 years old. Suspicions were directed toward Rely after a study of 42 TSS patients showed that the brand had been used by 71% of the women...
When it is invaded by a foreign substance-a virus or bacterium, say, or even the cells from a donated kidney or blood transfusion-the healthy body quickly mobilizes the immune system for a counterattack. Among the forces sent into combat are antibodies, tiny molecular missiles that attach themselves to the intruder's surface and help destroy the invader. They are highly efficient and selective; each antibody is so exquisitely designed that it matches up precisely with only one site on the invader or antigen, almost as if it were a key fitting into a lock...