The human flora...what are they good for?

[Randydeluxe]

It's interesting to think that you're harboring many bacteria that you yourself cannot tolerate. For example, there are bacteria that you can live in your colon every day of your life without worry. But take those same bacteria and try to harbor them in your sinuses, or your kidneys, and bad things happen.

[Dory]

It's interesting to think that you're harboring many bacteria that you yourself cannot tolerate. For example, there are bacteria that you can live in your colon every day of your life without worry. But take those same bacteria and try to harbor them in your sinuses, or your kidneys, and bad things happen.

So you're saying I should scrap my bacteria self-transportable nano-travel-ships endeavor? I was really out there to improve their life quality, but if that's the outcome...

[GenesForLife]

Microbes can live fine without us helping them, Dory, they can even withstand high doses of gamma radiation, UV radiation, acidic conditions, dessication and so on, and in Deinococcus radiodurans combined most of those things into one unicellular package.

For Deinococcus radiodurans and other bacteria which are extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, and desiccation, a mechanistic link exists between resistance, manganese accumulation, and protein protection. We show that ultrafiltered, protein-free preparations of D. radiodurans cell extracts prevent protein oxidation at massive doses of ionizing radiation. In contrast, ultrafiltrates from ionizing radiation-sensitive bacteria were not protective. The D. radiodurans ultrafiltrate was enriched in Mn, phosphate, nucleosides and bases, and peptides. When reconstituted in vitro at concentrations approximating those in the D. radiodurans cytosol, peptides interacted synergistically with Mn2+ and orthophosphate, and preserved the activity of large, multimeric enzymes exposed to 50,000 Gy, conditions which obliterated DNA. When applied ex vivo, the D. radiodurans ultrafiltrate protected Escherichia coli cells and human Jurkat T cells from extreme cellular insults caused by ionizing radiation. By establishing that Mn2+-metabolite complexes of D. radiodurans specifically protect proteins against indirect damage caused by gamma-rays delivered in vast doses, our findings provide the basis for a new approach to radioprotection and insight into how surplus Mn budgets in cells combat reactive oxygen

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0012570

[Dory]

Microbes can live fine without us helping them, Dory, they can even withstand high doses of gamma radiation, UV radiation, acidic conditions, dessication and so on, and in Deinococcus radiodurans combined most of those things into one unicellular package.

For Deinococcus radiodurans and other bacteria which are extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, and desiccation, a mechanistic link exists between resistance, manganese accumulation, and protein protection. We show that ultrafiltered, protein-free preparations of D. radiodurans cell extracts prevent protein oxidation at massive doses of ionizing radiation. In contrast, ultrafiltrates from ionizing radiation-sensitive bacteria were not protective. The D. radiodurans ultrafiltrate was enriched in Mn, phosphate, nucleosides and bases, and peptides. When reconstituted in vitro at concentrations approximating those in the D. radiodurans cytosol, peptides interacted synergistically with Mn2+ and orthophosphate, and preserved the activity of large, multimeric enzymes exposed to 50,000 Gy, conditions which obliterated DNA. When applied ex vivo, the D. radiodurans ultrafiltrate protected Escherichia coli cells and human Jurkat T cells from extreme cellular insults caused by ionizing radiation. By establishing that Mn2+-metabolite complexes of D. radiodurans specifically protect proteins against indirect damage caused by gamma-rays delivered in vast doses, our findings provide the basis for a new approach to radioprotection and insight into how surplus Mn budgets in cells combat reactive oxygen

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0012570

I bet they're immune to AIDS, too.

[GenesForLife]

haha , of course , because the genetics of HIV doom it to replicating only in human CD4+ T Lymphocytes / suitably modified animal models

[Dory]

haha , of course , because the genetics of HIV doom it to replicating only in human CD4+ T Lymphocytes / suitably modified animal models

*smacks forehead*

While we're at all, can you tell me why don't bacteria ever get sore muscles?....

[GenesForLife]

haha , of course , because the genetics of HIV doom it to replicating only in human CD4+ T Lymphocytes / suitably modified animal models

*smacks forehead*

While we're at all, can you tell me why don't bacteria ever get sore muscles?....

They don't have any

Just playing the Captain Obvious card, Dory

[Dory]

Oh...I lost the mutual plot somewhere... come here for a sloppy one Bertie Wooster!

[GenesForLife]

I blame Elle for that name...

[JimC]

They are not there TO do any thing they happen to have found a niche they are exploiting it they fact that some of then benefit us is just handy

http://mpicel.myweb.uga.edu/

The ones that benefit us (if only in Clinton's sense) may not be targetted by our immune system, so it may still be a case of I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine...

[Dory]

I blame Elle for that name...

Blame? It's catchy and neat, and much better than Genes For Life or whatever your unpronounceable superfluously long Hindu name is.

[GenesForLife]

I blame Elle for that name...

Blame? It's catchy and neat, and much better than Genes For Life or whatever your unpronounceable superfluously long Hindu name is.

It is a Sanskrit name, not a Hindu name... Ankur means sapling in Sanskrit , the long bits come from my father's name and my family name, which mean "Sun" and "Emperor of emperors"
respectively in Sanskrit.

[Dory]

*sighs* If you only had a Hindu accent and knew me IRL, you wouldn't know rest from my mockings.....

[GenesForLife]

*sighs* If you only had a Hindu accent and knew me IRL, you wouldn't know rest from my mockings.....

There are several different Indian accents, nothing like a Hindu accent again... someone down south, in Kerala for instance, will speak very differently from a Bengali (ask Natselrox)
Punjabis speak differently, central Indians speak differently.