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Many members of our indigenous microflora serve a beneficial role by preventing other microbes from becoming established in or colonizing a particular anatomic location. Microbial antagonism is the killing, injury, or inhibition of one microbe by substances produced by another. In nature, microbes are often organized into complex and persistent communities of assorted organisms called biofilms. Biofilms have been implicated in diseases such as endocarditis, cystic fibrosis, middle ear infections, kidney stones, periodontal disease, and prostate infections. Biofilms are very resistant to antibiotics, disinfectants, and certain types of host defense mechanisms. When two or more microbes team up to produce a disease that neither could cause by itself, the phenomenon is referred to as synergism or a synergistic relationship. The diseases they cause are referred to as synergistic infections, polymicrobial infections, or mixed infections. Inorganic nutrients, returned to the soil by saprophytes, are used by chemotrophic bacteria and plants for synthesis of biologic molecules necessary for growth. The plants are eaten by animals, which eventually die and are recycled again with the aid of saprophytes. In nature, bacteria play very important roles in the cycling of nutrients, as in the nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, sulfur, and phosporous cycles. The nitrogen cycle involves the participation of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, and denitrifying bacteria. The spores of many human pathogens can be found in soil, including those of Clostridium spp., Bacillus anthracis, and Cryptococcus neoformans. Microbes cause many diseases of farm animals, wild animals, zoo animals, and domestic pets. Microbes cause thousands of different types of plant diseases, with names such as blights, cankers, galls, leaf spots, mildews, mosaics, rots, rusts, scabs, smuts, and wilts. Biotechnology is defined as any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use. Microbes are used in many aspects of biotechnology, such as production of therapeutic proteins, DNA vaccines, and vitamins; the use of microbial metabolites as antimicrobial agents and other types of therapeutic agents; agricultural appications; food technology; production of chemicals; biomining; and bioremediation. Bioremediation refers to the use of microbes to clean up various types of wastes, including industrial and toxic wastes, and environmental pollutants (such as pesticides and herbicides). Many of the microbes used in bioremediation are found in nature, but others are genetically engineered to digest specific wastes.
Insight
How Bacteria Communicate With Each Other Scientists have long known that various types of cells within the human body, especially those that participate in immune responses, communicate with each other via chemical mediators known as cytokines. Cytokines act as chemical messages. Cytokines produced by one cell type can bind to molecules (receptors) on the surface of other types of cells. This binding triggers a response in the recipient cells. Thus, it should not come as too much of a surprise to learn that bacterial cells are also capable of communicating with each other. The phenomenon is known as quorum sensing or QS. The best studied bacteria capable of QS are Vibrio fischeri, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bacteria that use QS produce and secrete signaling molecules called autoinducers or pheromones. When an autoinducer produced by one cell binds to a receptor on the surface of another cell, it activates transcription of certain genes in the recipient cell. Bacteria use QS to coordinate certain behaviors within a bacterial population. Some scientists use the term QS to describe the phenomenon whereby the accumulation of signaling molecules enables a single cell to sense the number of bacteria (cell density) in its environment. Different bacterial species use different molecules to communicate. There is some evidence that different bacterial species can communicate with each other referred to as QS cross talk. QS cross talk occurs in mixed species populations such as biofilms. Some of the consequences of QS are (1) enabling the bacterial population to adapt to the availability of nutrients, (2) enabling avoidance of potentially dangerous toxic compounds, and (3) coordination of virulence factors and avoidance of immune responses in a host.
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4. Visit the J. Craig Venter Institute web site (www.jcvi.org) to learn about The Human Microbiome Project. The human microbiome consists of the trillions of microorganisms that reside in or on the human body (referred to in the book as our indigenous microflora), as well as all their DNA, or genomes. The Human Microbiome Project is exploring how our bodies and the human microbiome interact to influence health and disease. Samples are currently being collected by the Human Microbiome Project from five areas of the bodies of healthy human volunteers: the digestive tract, the mouth, the skin, the nose and the vagina.
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View nitrogen cycle animations at: www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/tlw3/eBridge/Chp29/animations/ch29/1_nitrogen_cycle.s wf Read the PDF file on microbes and biotechnology at: www.agwest.sk.ca/publications/infosource/inf_jun98.pdf Learn more about biotechnology at: www.biotechinstitute.org/what_is/
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10. Check out this great resource on biotechnology that includes information for students, teachers, technicians, and industry: www.bio-link.org/
Critical Thinking
1. A friend of yours has been taking an antibacterial agent to cure an ear infection. Suddenly, she develops yeast vaginitis. Explain to her why this has occurred. Use the library or Internet to research additional factors that can alter vaginal pH or the microbial composition of vaginal flora, leading to conditions such as bacterial vaginosis (BV) and yeast vaginitis. Be prepared to discuss your findings. Youve probably heard that farmers rotate their crops. One year they will plant a cash crop (e.g., corn), and the next year they will plant alfalfa or clover in that field. Why do they do that? Include the role of microorganisms in your answer.
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True/False Questions _____ 1. No microorganisms are able to live in the stomach, owing to the extremely low pH of the stomach contents. Microbial communities known as biofilms are interesting, but they have no medical significance. Microorganisms are unable to live in the colon because of the lack of oxygen there. Some of the bacteria used in bioremediation are naturally occurring, but others have been genetically engineered. Many of the members of our indigenous microflora have the potential to cause disease. There could be as many as 100 trillion microorganisms that live on us and in us. The most common organisms in the indigenous microflora of the mouth are various species of -hemolytic streptococci. Microbes cause thousands of different types of plant diseases. Most relationships between humans and microbes are beneficial rather than harmful. Beneficial microorganisms far outnumber harmful ones.
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True/False Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. False (the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is able to live in the stomach) False (certain types of biofilms do have medical significance) False (many different types of microorganisms live in the colon) True True True False (-hemolytic streptococci, not -hemolytic streptococci) True True True