The evolution of bacteria

3,459 Views | 32 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by ramblin_ag02
An Ag in CO
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AG
Here's a pretty cool video showing the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria:

kurt vonnegut
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AG
Very cool.
Sapper Redux
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It's scary how adaptable they are. I worry my daughter will grow up in a world where death by infection is astronomically more common than it is now.
amercer
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AG
Right now it's more of an economic issue than anything else. Current antibiotics are still pretty effective, and they are basically free. There is zero incentive for pharma to invest in most infectious disease programs.

However, our success against HIV gives me hope that when the need really arises, we will be able to churn out more good antibiotics
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schmendeler
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quote:
It's scary how adaptable they are. I worry my daughter will grow up in a world where death by infection is astronomically more common than it is now.
basic ones (ex: Amoxicillin) seem to do a pretty good job still. I don't know how many gallons of that we've given our kids for ear infections and other crap over the years.
Sapper Redux
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So far we've been lucky with that as well for ear infections. I just worry when they keep talking about superbugs.
mesocosm
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The bacteria are not evolving. They are adapting - big difference. And at the end of the experiment they are still bacteria.
Sapper Redux
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Adaptation IS evolution. The bacteria are not the same as the bacteria they emerged from.
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FlyFish95
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How does bacteria that gets into your ear and it subsequently killed, evolve?
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schmendeler
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he doesn't understand that antibiotics aren't perfect and don't always kill 100% of the population.
amercer
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AG
quote:
The bacteria are not evolving. They are adapting - big difference. And at the end of the experiment they are still bacteria.


Potato, potato...

Sort of.

Speciation is tricky to define for asexual organisms. Still, diversity, selection, and adaptation are all processes within evolution.
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AggieRain
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Biology suits you.
Win At Life
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It's a wonder there's never been a virus as deadly as Ebola that has a longer gestation like HIV. Ebola kills too quick, so it's easier to control the number of people who come in contact with the affected. AIDS is harder to spread than say the flu.

A real doomsday scenario would be a virus that spreads as easily as flu, has a long latency stage like HIV and then is as deadly as Ebola.
amercer
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The 1918 flu was pretty bad.
mesocosm
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When the bacteria turn into fish, kitty cats or orangutans give me a call.
Sapper Redux
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quote:
When the bacteria turn into fish, kitty cats or orangutans give me a call.


Just not lazy birds!
BusterAg
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Something like Zika is what scares the hell out of me.

If we encounter a virus that is easily spread, has fairly manageable symptoms, but prevents us from having healthy children, we are screwed.
FlyFish95
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quote:
Something like Zika is what scares the hell out of me.

If we encounter a virus that is easily spread, has fairly manageable symptoms, but prevents us from having healthy children, we are screwed.


Nature's way of fighting global warming?
Buck O Five
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AG
quote:
Something like Zika is what scares the hell out of me.

If we encounter a virus that is easily spread, has fairly manageable symptoms, but prevents us from having healthy children, we are screwed.
kurt vonnegut
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quote:
Something like Zika is what scares the hell out of me.

If we encounter a virus that is easily spread, has fairly manageable symptoms, but prevents us from having healthy children, we are screwed.

There's a GMO for that.

http://www.humanosphere.org/science/2016/08/fda-approves-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-combat-zika-virus-florida/
jamey
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quote:
It's scary how adaptable they are. I worry my daughter will grow up in a world where death by infection is astronomically more common than it is now.


DNA is adaptable no matter the life form it constructs


It just seems impressive with bacteria because it's so quick due to the massive numbers in quantity and reproduction rate


Working in a lab in my 20s I saw it all the time.
dds08
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Thank goodness for antibiotics.

I am on 2 pill antibiotics and 1 Intravenous because of mycobacteria that grew in my abdomen and formed a build up before I caught it.

I hate my life.

Spent 2 weeks in and out the hospital. Surgeries. Numerous doctor visits.

Then infectious diseases doctors needed 3-4 weeks to grow their sample bacteria they took from me because it was a slow growth effer. Finally after patiently waiting they found the anitbiotic that is specifically treats the fungus I have.

Worst ***** ever having to change this dressing everyday.

I wanna die.

I hope CRISPR will eradicate this kinda thing 20 years from now.

For now I'll be on these pills and things for 4-5 months.
Buck O Five
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CRISPR is some wildly exciting technology.
AggieUSMC
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Quote:

Adaptation IS evolution. The bacteria are not the same as the bacteria they emerged from.


Not quite. Adaptation is a mechanism of evolution. That's like saying heat IS cooking.
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AggieUSMC
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It's true they're all related. But they're not synonymous terms as implied by Dr Watson.

And you have it wrong. You can have adaptation without selection. But you can't have selection without adaptation. Just like you can have heat without cooking but you can't cook without heat.
schmendeler
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Unless you have lime juice
Diyala Nick
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Do CRISPR have board?

But seriously, crispr is pretty exciting. Combined with ai/deep learning, it opens up the possibility of understanding data realtionships with trillions of possible combinations, and editing them.

Its not crazy to think that in the near future we will have the ability to proactively model an organisms evolution and make selective edits to achieve ideal outcomes. Bacteria, virusea, cancer..it all may be fair game.
LondonOllie
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AstroAg17 said:

Take the full flight of antibiotics when they're prescribed. A lot of people stop part of the way through, and that selects for resistance.

That's true, but I would also say that putting aside the huge amount of antibiotics used in meat and poultry, there's also a massive problem of antibiotic overprescription here in the USA.
ramblin_ag02
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Quote:

That's true, but I would also say that putting aside the huge amount of antibiotics used in meat and poultry, there's also a massive problem of antibiotic overprescription here in the USA.

I hear this a lot, but it's really not true. Most studies of antibiotic cycling show that antibiotic resistance fades to almost nothing just by stopping that class of antibiotics for one month. It is a temporary adaptation that is quickly discarded (or out-competed) when no longer immediately useful.

To my knowledge, all multi-resistant superbugs have come from either one of two places. Either from ag lots or intensive care units. And this makes sense.In agriculture, they use huge amounts of antibiotics for large numbers of animals in close quarters for long durations (last I checked 70% of the antibiotics in the US were used for livestock). In the ICU, we use long courses of antibiotics with a lot of really sick people in a small contained area. Both of these situations involve continuous exposure over long periods of time in contained areas. I can't speak for agriculture, but I don't think there is such a thing as overprescribing in critical care situations. You save your patient and deal with the rest later. There are some grey areas in hospitalized but non-critically ill patients, but those are judgment calls.

To put it succinctly, your neighborhood doctor prescribing amoxicillin or a z-pak is not going to bring on the superbug apocalypse.
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