Microbes in the News #2

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190328150745.htm

Copycat fungus deceives immune system and deactivates body’s response to infection

Date: March 28, 2019          Source: University of Sheffield

 

Summary: New research shows fungi can make similar chemical signals as our immune system. These chemicals enter the body and make humans more likely to get an infection.

 

Connections: Just today in class we talked about the immune system and how it captures microbes.

 

Critical Analysis: Fungi have always produced chemicals similar to those released in our immune system. Up until know, we haven’t known the function of these chemicals. Now, research shows that when exposed to these chemicals the fungi can grow more easily than when the host is unexposed. I found it especially interesting that the fungus does not suppress the immune system in any ways. These fungi immune chemicals named prostoglandins activate a specific immune system pathway. This pathway prevents over-stimulation of the immune system. Ultimately this makes the body unable to fight off the fungal infection. What is even more dangerous is that opportunistic infections from usually commensal bacteria pose a danger while these postoglandins deceive the body. Once the body is tricked into shutting down the immune system, bacteria that our bodies always host begin to grow out of control.

 

Question: Would it be possible for microbiologists to isolate these prostoglandins in order to treat diseases in which the immune system attacks itself?

A2: Microbes in the News Post 2

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Copycat fungus deceives immune system and deactivates body’s response to infection. Science Daily, March 28, 2019.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190328150745.htm

Summary: Cryptococcus neoformans,  a fungi that is very dangerous for immune compromised people is able to send out a signal to weaken immune response. This pathway in humans is intended to prevent an overreaction by the immune system by effectively deactivating immune cells.

Connections: We are currently covering the immune system and pathogens in class.

Critical Analysis: I was interested in this story because we are currently covering the immune system in class. The story was written by a sight that regularly covers news in the science world. It was able to effectively turn what was a far more technical research paper into something most people can understand.

Would it be possible for a drug to block this pathway to bolster the immune system?

New technique provides a better understanding of bacteria evolution

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New technique pinpoints milestones in the evolution of bacteria
Results show bacterial genomes provide “shadow history’ of animal evolution.
Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office February 7, 2019

References

Danielle S. Gruen, J. M. (2019, January). Paleozoic diversification of terrestrial chitin-degrading bacterial lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19-34. Retrieved from https://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-019-1357-8

 

—  Summary:  Researchers from MIT have established organism relationships between fungi and bacteria by reviewing the gene for chitinase (an enzyme which helps to break down chitin). Their review of the mutations, and similarities across different species has allowed them to create an evolutionary tree which correlates microbial evolution with fungal evolution. They found that approximately 450 to 350 million years ago, diversification of three separate bacterial groups diversified as the result of gene transfer with a chitinase utilizing fungi. Below is the resulting evolutionary tree with the fungi identified by purple lines and bacteria with blue lines.

(Gruen, et al. 2019)

—  Connections:  This connects with: Microbial evolution, metabolism, and diversification.
Chitinase allows these bacteria to metabolize chitin as an energy source. This allowed diversification of microbes into new niches ones chitin became more prolific in the environment. Gene transfer was said to make it difficult to genomically identify or differentiate bacterial strains, but here the gene transfer has allowed a better understanding.

—  Critical analysis: I found this article very interesting because, most evolutionary trees are based on rRNA sequencing (highly conserved due to form/function). The use of chitinase to correlate evolutionary relationships between fungus and bacteria is interesting. Especially since the origin of chitinase was in a Fungi (a microorganism that doesn’t look like a microorganism) and the gene has been horizontally transferred to bacteria.

The story was very well written and after reading the original journal publication, it was factually and accurately written. The author did as great job in conveying the information to the general population without losing the integrity of the research. I appreciate the writing style and how it helps those (like myself) who aren’t as well versed in the scientific nomenclature, to understand the information and findings from the research.

 

—  Question:  How many other highly conserved coding regions can we isolate and use in this manner? Are enzymes such as chitinase always highly conserved, or is there slight variations in the conformation, allowing it to mutate without ruining the function of the enzyme?

-Samantha Smith

Assignment 2 Microbes in The News

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How a Fungus can Cripple your Immune System

February 8, 2019

Source: Science Daily:  Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190208095614.htm

Summary:

In this article the scientists conduct a study about how the fungus  Aspergillus fumigatus  is able to turn off an enzyme that is used by immune cells to communicate between each other. Healthy individuals are not very affected by the fungus, but it is dangerous to individuals who are immune difficient, such as individuals who suffer from AIDs.

Connection:

This does connect to when we were explaining what makes a microorganism. We discussed that fungi are covered under microorganisms, but we haven’t touched on fungus too much. This is a special adaptation specific to this type of microorganisms.

Critical Analysis:

I found this article very interesting in the fact that we often tell people that breathing in a certain fungus can “take years off your life’ and this fungus actually can. I learned to the extent that fungus can actually do this, I think people often assume that the air they breathe is healthy as long as it looks and smells pure, but this fungus has spores that can float through the air and be completely undetectable. I did not realize how potentially dangerous fungi can be, and it kind of opens your eyes to how vigilant people who have immune difficiencies have to be about their health.

Question:

How can we protect people who have immune defficiencies from these type of problems?