September 23, 2016 Friday
Bedtime Story
Competing for limited resources: Oldest Problem in Biology
Nature is red in tooth and claw.
Life in all its varied forms is based on unmitigated relentless competition.
Human societies and civilizations only reflect this uneasy bitter truth.
The similarity in the social behavior of microbes is remarkably similar to that of the great apes.
Microbes exhibit the same phenomenon of kin selection or kin altruism that we display towards our families and close relatives.
Microbes too display social cheating which is ubiquitous and widespread in us apes.
When it comes to battling for resources, yet again microbes deploy 2 basic strategies:
A. Scramble
B. Contest
Scrambling involves rapid utilization of the available resources without directly confronting the competitors.
Scrambling combines space occupation along with rapid growth.
The famous biologist E. O. Wilson gave the analogy of street urchins rushing in to gather falling coins falling from purse of a wealthy fat baroness.
To my mind, there is no better example for the scramble competition than the Scramble for Africa by the world powers that started in 1880s and continues till date.
The second strategy of Contest involves direct interaction with the rivals along with cooperation with clones of same or similar genetics.
This results in population-level strategy of contest between colonies of slightly different genotypes.
The methods of Contesting can be divided into 5 subtypes:
1. Protecting the Supply Line:
A beautiful example is the production of high-affinity, iron scavenging or chelating molecules called siderophores.
The microbes that produce it divert the supply of iron (an invaluable element In many heme proteins including cytochrome P450) to themselves.
2. Taking and Holding the High Ground:
Is relocating and taking over a site of high nutritive value.
Microbes do so by the production of novel adhesins and receptors that literally allows them to anchor over a desired environment.
Lactobacilli which thrive in the gut of us apes and most animals (they don't consider us apes special), produce surface gylcoproteins that allow them to get a good hold on to the epithelial cells of intestines.
This prevents other bacteria such as Salmonella species or E. coli gaining control.
3. To Fight or Flee:
Where motility is the chief weapon of offense or defense.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its quick mobility to outgrow and blanket colonies of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
We shall be looking at 2 more strategies in the nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Bedtime Story
Competing for limited resources: Oldest Problem in Biology
Nature is red in tooth and claw.
Life in all its varied forms is based on unmitigated relentless competition.
Human societies and civilizations only reflect this uneasy bitter truth.
The similarity in the social behavior of microbes is remarkably similar to that of the great apes.
Microbes exhibit the same phenomenon of kin selection or kin altruism that we display towards our families and close relatives.
Microbes too display social cheating which is ubiquitous and widespread in us apes.
When it comes to battling for resources, yet again microbes deploy 2 basic strategies:
A. Scramble
B. Contest
Scrambling involves rapid utilization of the available resources without directly confronting the competitors.
Scrambling combines space occupation along with rapid growth.
The famous biologist E. O. Wilson gave the analogy of street urchins rushing in to gather falling coins falling from purse of a wealthy fat baroness.
To my mind, there is no better example for the scramble competition than the Scramble for Africa by the world powers that started in 1880s and continues till date.
The second strategy of Contest involves direct interaction with the rivals along with cooperation with clones of same or similar genetics.
This results in population-level strategy of contest between colonies of slightly different genotypes.
The methods of Contesting can be divided into 5 subtypes:
1. Protecting the Supply Line:
A beautiful example is the production of high-affinity, iron scavenging or chelating molecules called siderophores.
The microbes that produce it divert the supply of iron (an invaluable element In many heme proteins including cytochrome P450) to themselves.
2. Taking and Holding the High Ground:
Is relocating and taking over a site of high nutritive value.
Microbes do so by the production of novel adhesins and receptors that literally allows them to anchor over a desired environment.
Lactobacilli which thrive in the gut of us apes and most animals (they don't consider us apes special), produce surface gylcoproteins that allow them to get a good hold on to the epithelial cells of intestines.
This prevents other bacteria such as Salmonella species or E. coli gaining control.
3. To Fight or Flee:
Where motility is the chief weapon of offense or defense.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its quick mobility to outgrow and blanket colonies of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
We shall be looking at 2 more strategies in the nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Culturing microbes on the MacConkey agar
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