Abstract
Much of the focus within microbial forensics has been on characteristics of the specific agent involved, principally the genetic makeup. The phenotypic changes in the microbial cell have also been characterized by analyzing changes in the structure, elemental, chemical, or biochemical content of the cell produced in response to the growth environment. The same analytical methods used to detect cellular constituents can be applied to detecting residual indicators of materials used for production and preservation. Specific examples, such as residual agar or blood components from solidified growth medium, have been targeted for assay development. However, the same methods can be applied to detection of other carbohydrate and protein components derived from growth medium or used for dry stabilization. Taken together, these residual components comprise a potentially rich signature of the method used to produce a biological agent.
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Acknowledgments
A portion of this work was supported by the US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology within the bioforensics program. The research was performed at The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated by Battelle for the US Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC05-76RLO1830.
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Wahl, K.L. (2012). Extracellular Signatures as Indicators of Process Methods. In: Cliff, J., Kreuzer, H., Ehrhardt, C., Wunschel, D. (eds) Chemical and Physical Signatures for Microbial Forensics. Infectious Disease. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-219-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-219-3_8
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