Global Warming and Bacteria

Global warming and bacteria

As the world gets warmer everyday and we are trying to decrease the use of any substances that produce greenhouse gases (fossil fuels), the CO2 levels keep increasing. However, the statistics and numbers of CO2 levels are based in the production of it in the industry (fabrics, cars, coal, etc). We have forgotten the most abundant form of life in earth; Bacteria. So how has Bacteria been affected by global warming? And what is the role of bacteria in global warming?

Most of the carbon in the world is storage in large layers of ice in the Arctic pole; they have been there for long periods of time. However, the increasing temperatures are melting the Arctic ring. As we know by now studies of the soil in the Arctic have shown us there are microorganisms living in it. These bacteria can be classified as Psychrophile (as cold temperatures are permanent). Some of these Bacteria have lived in endospores for many years; let’s remind ourselves that endospores can protect bacteria against extreme conditions i.e. freezing temperatures. As the world gets warmer these bacteria are breaking down long-term stores of carbon; that is, they are getting carbon sources from the Arctic soil as source of energy and producing CO2 as a by-product. This increasing of CO2 emissions would increase the effects of global warming. Another aspect is that Global warming is increasing the rate in which bacteria are decomposing death matter (leafs, animals) producing CO2. This is a problem because there is no longer a balance between the production of CO2 by decomposition and the absorbance of this green house gas by plants.

So what else can we expected from global warming? Well, the melting of the Arctic layer is bringing old bacteria and viruses back to life. These new populations could potentially be infections organism we thought were gone or be new organism which could cause epidemics never seen before. The only thing left to say is that we need to keep in mind that our actions are not just affecting the human race; it is also affecting Mother Nature. Bacteria and viruses would get their sources to keep living, and they will not care going through us to succeed. Hopefully we are not too late to make a big difference to make our future better.


New Scientist; 7/9/2005, Vol. 187 Issue 2507, p45-45, 1/2p, 1c

http://www.physorg.com/news4009.html

http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-44050.html

http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2366

Ear Infections caused by Superbug: "It all starts with the Ear"

A recent discovery has shown that there is a strain of bacteria causing chronic ear infections in children. It was discovered after common ear infection antibiotics failed to heal infections, which lead to an ear-tap and examination of the fluid. Tests on the fluid showed this "superbug" was being caused by strain 19A, and was found treatable using an adult antibiotic called levofloxacin, Levaquin (which the use of it has not been proven safe for children yet). However, there is a much bigger underlying issue at hand: over-prescribing of antibiotics leading to untreatable strains of bacteria, causing ear infections, pneumonia, meningitis, blood infections, etc... These conditions can lead to hearing loss, brain damage, and even death. It seems many doctors do not perform an ear tap to determine the type of bacteria causing the ear infection. They instead prescribe one of the many known antibiotics used to heal ear infections in children, without knowing if the infection will heal on its own or if the particular strain causing the infection is resistant to the antibiotic prescribed. This leads to using antibiotics when unnecessary, or using more types of antibiotics than necessary. This in turn builds antibiotic resistance. If the strain 19A becomes predominant in causing ear infections, than the use of the levofloxaxin, Levoquin antibiotic will increase, and pretty soon immunity to that will develop and there will be no approved treatment for ear infections, and overall strain 19A. The reality of strain 19A as a "superbug" will become inevitable, and with the way society is today, seemingly unavoidable.
Most ear infections are caused by Acute Otitis, which usually comes from the bacteria S. Pneumonia. S.Pneumonia is also known to cause pneumonia and meningitis. Wyeth's Prevnan is a vaccine recommended for children under two to help prevent pneumonia. S. Pneumonia works by coating itself in a 90 variation sugar capsule that infects human cells by mimicking human cell coatings. 7 of the most common variations that cause infection are prevented by Prevnan.
This, and the overuse of antibiotics, made room for the other less common capsule variations (like strain 19A) to prevail. A new vaccine to cover more strains of S. Pneumonia is expected to come to market by 2009.
Some better advice: Be more cautious about "over-dosing" on antibiotics; don't get treated for every little infection......after all we do have an immune system, and metaphorically speaking "If you don't use it, you lose it!"

References:
University of Rochester Medical Center (2007, October 17). Ear Infection Superbug Discovered To Be Resistant To All Pediatric Antibiotics. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071016160615.htm

Marchione, Marilyn (2007, September 17). Pneumonia Vaccine May Facilitate 'Superbug' Ear Infections. Associated Press: C Health. Retrieved November 8, 2007, from http://chealth.canoe.ca

Gordon, Serena (2007, October 16). Ear Infections Linked to Drug-Resistant 'Superbug'. HealthDay News. Retrieved November 8, 2007, from http://www.healthday.com

Image location:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/how-to-deal-with-middle-ear-infection-1.jpg

Viruses and Osteosarcoma

Cancer is an illness that in some way or another has affected everyone. It is usually associated with older people who have had time to live their lives. However, there is a cancer that is almost only found in children and teens between the ages of nine and twenty-two, although, it can occur in people of any age. It is most commonly found in the femur, humerus and tibia and arises from osteoblasts (the cells that produce bone and cause it to grow). During the teen years children are going through growth spurts with their cells quickly dividing. Obviously the cause of cancer is not known however, there are possible hypothesises that bring forth a good argument. We know that proto-oncogenes aid in the normal function of the cell cycle and we also know that viruses are capable of disrupting the proto-onogene. In the case of Osteosarcoma a virus could interfere with the proto-onogene causing the inhibition of p53 (a protein that blocks the cell cycle if DNA is damaged). The virus then could begin to control the cell cycle in some way. The mutation causes inability for cells to pass through S phase and the check points, being the perfect precursor for tumour development. Because osteosarcoma most often arises in teenagers experiencing growth spurts, bones are growing at a rapid rate with the mutated cells taking control, being replicated more quickly than they would during other periods of one’s life. This p53 is an important part in the cell cycle which allows our cells to pass through the appropriate check points. When it is inhibited disaster occurs. If only they could figure out a way to block inhibition of this protein or block viruses from inserting into our genome all together. Unfortunately it is hard to keep up with research because viruses change so quickly. Maybe there will never be a cure for virus caused cancers...although, we can hope!

Even though there is not a cure for osteosarcoma or any cancer for that matter research is moving quickly to make mortality rate lower and lower. Osteosarcoma can be treated with vigorous interval treatments of chemotherapy. Because it mostly occurs in younger people their bodies can with stand a higher dosage. Allowing the tumour to reduce significantly in size and proceed on to surgery. If surgery goes well and the tumour reduces in size due to the chemotherapy the affected bone can be replaced with titanium, this form of prosthetic is not noticeable. There is some limited function such as running. But, overall it is a much better alternative than the “old fashioned” prosthetics. Even though there is no complete cure of any cancer, research makes it possible to limit the heart ache that caused by it.

sources:

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/cancer/cancer_osteosarcoma.html

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=361354

http://images.google.com/

Twinrix Vaccine

Twinrix is a vaccine that is used for protection against hepatitis A & B. A number of people had told me that it gave coverage for life. The manufacturer, Glaxo Smith Kline, states that the vaccine provides coverage for about 15 to 20 years. If you are not sure if you have been vaccinated in the past, say at school, or are not certain that you still have coverage, you can go for blood work and get a serology test. This test will tell you if you still have active antibodies against hepatitis A & B.

There are two different dosing schedules that may be used for administering the Twinrix vaccine. The most common dosing schedule is a shot at 0, 1, and 6 months. If you need coverage faster, there is a rapid dose that involoves 4 shots. Rapid schedule is 0, 7, and 21 days followed by a fourth dose at 12 months from the first.

The Twinrix vaccine is used for ages 1 year old and above. There are some common possible side effects including redness, swelling, and pain at the site of injection. Other inconvenient possible side effects are headache, malaise, nausea and fatigue.

WHAT IS HEPATITIS AND HOW COULD I GET INFECTED?

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver caused by the hepatovirus.

Hepatitis A is contamination by fecal matter. Hygiene and sanitation are the best preventative measures. Wash hands after using the washroom to prevent spreading to others. To protect yourself use clean towels, your own toothbrush that you keep covered, clean utensils and your own personal hygiene products. A common site for picking up Hepatitis A is at a restuarant where an employee did not wash.

Hepatitis B is transferred through blood and body fluids. Unprotected sex, blood transfusion, tattoos, manicures, mother to infant and contaminated needles are all possible ways to contract hepatitis B. Abstinence or latex condoms will greatly reduce the risk of transferring hepatitis B as will proper testing of blood before any form of transfusions, clean needles and clean manicure supplies.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF HEPATITIS?

Fatigue, fever, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, appetite lose, depression and jaunice may appear 2 to 6 weeks after infection. Some individuals may exhibit no symptoms.

I travel frequently and have been to Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, and Punta Cana. I definitely got the Twinrix vaccine before setting out. Some countries are not as aware of good hygiene practices as you would expect in Canada. I fully support the hepatitis A & B vaccine if you are going to be travelling. Use this connection to the travelsafely site for videos and information before travelling.

http://www.balancedlivingmag.com/2006/March%20-%20April%2006/When%20Parents%20Question%20Vaccination.htm
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=655514&refnum=402501
http://www.geneesmiddelenrepertorium.nl/076_twinr_eu
http://www.twinrix.ca/en/home/index.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_B

Bye bye biofilm...maybe?

As we have learned in our microbiology course, the formation of bacterial biofilm is one of the most effective ways of a bacteria to cause an infection in humans. The biofilm is a layer of slime that a colony of bacteria produce to shield themselves from our immune system and from antibiotics. According to a study done by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 80 percent of infections are caused by the formation of biofilms. If scientists could come up with a way to prevent biofilm formation, it is possible that the number of, and longevity of bacterial infections could be decreased dramatically. Recently, a chemist working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has begun studies on this subject. However, to understand the techniques of this study properly, a general knowledge of the mechanisms of the generation of a biolfilm is required.


The first step in the creation of a biofilm is when single bacteria attach to their substrate. They do so at first through weak Van der Waals interactions, and then adhere more securely via their attachment structures such as pili. When the accumulation of bacteria is substancial enough, and when the bacteria have anchored sufficiently, the bacteria start acting as a colony and begin to communicate and produce the slime layer, and eventually, the biofilm is created. The first layer of bacteria provide the attachment site for others, and through reproduction, many layers are created and the biofilm mass grows rapidly. One of the most important steps in this process (for the purposes of the study mentioned above) is the communications that lead the colony to begin producing the slime layer, and ultimately the biofilm. The communications occur through a process called quorum sensing.


Quorum sensing is the process in which bacteria control gene expression based on the density of local bacteria. Bacteria have specialized molecules which sense density, and when the density reaches a certain point, the bacteria begin to function as a group, and become a colony which leads to biofilm formation. Quorum sensing is the the focus of the UW chemists studies. Their idea is that if these density sensing molecules can be altered, or tricked, that the formation of colonies would be inhibited, and that the bacteria would continue to exist as single units not acting as a colony. The process of inhibiting the biolfilm formation is called quorum-quenching.


If a successful quorum-quenching drug could be produced, it would greatly benefit the medical community. A quorum-quenching drug, one that does not focus on killing bacteria, would mean that antiobiotics would not have to be the only option for treating bacterial infection. I've had some unpleasant antibiotic experience in the past, and to me, an alternate treatment for bacteria would be a very positive thing. The quorum-quenching drug is still in testing, but hopefully in the near future, this treatment will be available for at least some kids of infections.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm#_note-3

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=255074&ntpid=2

Picture:

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/astrobiology/biomarkers/_images/biofilm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/astrobiology/biomarkers/astrobiology.cfm&h=655&w=960&sz=274&hl=en&start=8&sig2=c9QY74HFC1BQy0Lk4jt9cA&tbnid=5iLr9-7TtkRUQM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=148&ei=FKxkR4DwHpG-hALu9qiHDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbiofilm%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Marine Photosynthetic Bacteria…Perhaps a New Green Fuel Source?

The interest in global warming and environmental degradation goes hand in hand with a search for new greener sources of fuel compared to oil. Well, we may have found one in marine bacteria. It has always been thought that algae were the only marine organism capable of using sunlight for energy, however in 2000, a team of American researchers discovered that a marine microbe contains a gene which codes for a light sensitive pigment. This pigment, named proteorhodopsin, is very similar to rhodopsin, a pigment found in the retina that allows us humans to detect different colours.

At the time of this discovery, scientists were not entirely sure what the pigment was used for, but they had a hunch that it was for photosynthesis. This was only proved last year, when a team of Swedish researchers at Kalmar University College collected some twenty samples of seawater from all over the world and mapped their genomes. Many of these bacteria had the gene present for the production of proteorhodopsin. What is so interesting about this is that they were able to concretely prove experimentally that this pigment converted solar energy into available energy for cellular functions and had successfully found and proven that a marine bacterium actually uses light for energy.

Studies conducted this year at the University of California at Berkley, have further given understanding to this amazing processes of marine bacteria. They found “that when the ability to respire oxygen is impaired, bacteria equipped with proteorhodopsin will switch to solar power to carry out vital life processes.” These researchers discovered that this pigment is facultative, and only kicks in under certain environmental conditions, like low oxygen availability. Many areas of the oceans are quite oxygen deprived, consequently this knowledge gives us some understanding about why so many marine bacteria possess such a pigment.

Enough of this intense science talk, what does this have to do with clean energy??? Well it’s always great to have solar options that have nothing to do with putting ugly panels on your roof! Just think if we could find a way to capture and maximize the energy produced by these bacteria, since for every one litre of seawater there are one billion bacteria. We could kiss our energy crisis goodbye, and at the same time help clean up our hydrocarbon polluted planet. Does it not sound like a win-win situation? So what is the next step? According to Liphardt, a researcher on the team at Berkeley, the next phase “is to optimize the amount of light that can be collected in cells enhanced with proteorhodopsin.” Identifying the most functionally efficient form of this pigment, and incorporating it into the genome of bacteria can achieve this.


Could you imagine if the world’s main energy source was produced by one of the most feared organisms? Wouldn’t that change our perception of bacteria!!!

Resources:

http://lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive?PBD-proteorhodopsin.html

http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=87663892

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010614063941.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070115102154.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070210170433.htm

http://news.softpedia.com/newsPDF/New-Marine-Bacteria-Could-Produce-Ecological-Fuel-44185.pdf

Picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99996011@N00/1483604077/

Long Live Microbes: Revival of Microbes from Ancient Glacial Ice

A team of scientists from Rutgers University, Korea’s Polar Research Institute, and Boston University has revived microbes from five different samples of ancient ice. The Antarctic samples range in age from 100,000 to 8 million years of age. Antarctica was chosen as a prime site for ice samples because the oldest ice on Earth is located here, in the Transantarctic Mountains. The samples were taken back to the lab and carefully thawed, taking into consideration to maximally avoid contamination by contemporary bacteria in our environment. They did so by soaking the ice samples in an ethanol solution as well as washing the outside of the ice with sterile water. These precautions killed all possible unwanted bacteria.

What do you think they found in the samples of very old ice once it was thawed???? LIVING BACTERIA. How awesome is that???? Both the 100,000 and 8 million year old bacteria could be resurrected from their very cold entombment, however there was a difference between the two. The 100,000-year-old bacteria jumped out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning ready to rip open presents. “The young stuff grew really fast…it doubled every couple of days,” said Kay Bidle, assistant professor of marine biology and coastal sciences at Rutgers; according to their research their was many more microorganisms in the younger ice than in the older ice. The eight million year old ice provided slow growing unidentifiable microbial species. The identification process was impossible because their DNA was so fragmented over years of polar cosmic radiation, that they could no longer repair the damage done. Evidence of exponential decline was also evident from the five ice samples, where “every 1.1 million years, the DNA gets chopped in half,” resulting in very little DNA being left from the 8 million year old sample. Although the old bacteria has very few nucleotide sequences left, and the more recent microbes are rearing to go, they both have genetic material capable of transferring to bacterial species living on Earth today.

Why could this study be such a big deal??? There are two very interesting things this study brings to light, one being the theory that these newly thawed microbes are going to be washed into our oceans at a greater rate than ever, because of global warming and secondly counter acting the theory that bacteria and therefore life landed here via comets from space.

Global warming is a concern on many fronts, however glacial retreat may have a new smaller threat associated with it. The possibility that the ancient bacteria may be able to transfer its DNA remnants to new microbial species in a process called horizontal gene transfer, is a lurking effect on the horizon. As we know from class, this could give microbes the upper hand when it comes to evolution, maybe by transferring advantageous qualities such as antibiotic resistance. Historically, this has been going on throughout the overall time of Earth’s existence, but we have never been able to study or observe its affects on the planet. No one knows what this means or what may happen because of this. Will oceanic microbial species be dramatically changed by the incorporation of new (although ancient) bacterial genes? Will this genes cause new pathogenic disease? Will they be helpful as a source of green energy? No one knows the answers to these questions, however only time will tell if these theories may be true.

Another, quite interesting hypothesis this study may prove wrong, is the theory that bacteria arrived here on Earth from space. Because this study showed that excessive radiation caused the DNA in the bacteria to broken beyond repair, this theory of life on Earth may be up for debate. It may have proven that millions of years of travel through highly radioactive space on an ice-covered comet to land on Earth and be able grow and divide, may not be scientifically possible. Well, I guess we are going to have to look elsewhere for the answer to the question, where did life come from???

These scientific discoveries are what make the world so interesting. Although they may shut doors to theories we’ve thought to answer, they open so many more questions to the future of our planet and everyone who lives here.


References:

Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070807084214.htm

BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935146.stm

National Geographic News

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070806-bacteria-ice.html

The Independent

http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2999306.ece

Astrobiology Magazine

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2428