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Genetically Modified Mouthwashing Bacteria
Moxen writes: "The BBC is running an article about a genetically modified bacterium that is intended to replace the existing lactic-acid-producing variety currently residing in your mouth. Once the new bacteria have replaced the old, you can apparently expect the elimination of 'most tooth decay.' Rather clever, if you don't mind playing host to a colony of GMOs."
This is somethign that all computer people need. Anything that lessens the time that a computer person has to spend away from their keyboard, the better. I for one welcome this, since brushing of the teeth is something that I have to try very hard to remember.
Finally! Nay-sayers be damned, sign me up for this! This is one of those things that makes me proud to be human!
(I am not being sarcastic, I really think this is exactly the kind of thing that science should be doing.)
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
This sounds pretty neat. I'd like to never have to worry about tooth decay again. I'll bet this would do a pretty skookum job of keeping my breath fresher, too. But... Do the scientists who've developed this actually have a clue?
Is this, for example, going to be so successfully alive in my mouth that it'll decide to live elsewhere too? Maybe it will kill my digestive bacteria? Possibly cause less functional first stage digestion in my mouth?
I suppose this, like any new GE type revelation, is one that is only testable imperically. I don't know about anyone else, but that kinda willies my out. Maybe we're creating bacteria-zilla, eh?
I find it surprising that many people I speak with about GE generally place it at the same level of complexity of *any* scientific discipline. Much as I'd like to think that I am a smart fellow because I know some computer stuff, the GE world is waaay waaay more complex than the one I live in. I am convinced that we do NOT have the ability to ensure any level of safety in the deployment of any GE in any form, whatsoever. We just don't have any way of being deterministic about outcomes of GE on any organism.
Maybe I am out to lunch. Please (PLEASE) prove me wrong - but GE seems to be very much a "what happens if we push *this* button" kind of discipline.
If it did spread through kissing, how would they make their money back?
Police Officer: I'm sorry, son, you're going to have to come with me. Seems like you've got an illegal copy of DNA sequence 9422136A residing in the bacteria in your mouth.
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
It appears to me that we've evolved to have the organisms in our mouth that we do have for a reason. Whatever that reason may be. Maybe sometimes we should just *not* fuck with nature?
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Because of the Almighty Buck's all-mighty interests. :|
If we could be free of cavities forever with just one whiff of a spray, then half the dentists out there would be out of business, and so would toothpaste/brush industries.
I would sure like a bit of that spray though.
I have a genetic condition that weakens my teeth somehow. My grandmother had mostly false teeth when she turned 20 and my mother has the same problem. I brush my teeth like 5 times a day and I keep getting cavities. Most of my teeth have already been drilled at least once and I'm only 22 years old
Alcohol ;) :P
* Origin: XBase BBS (2:490/4100) Well the good old days may not return and rocks might melt and sea may burn.
More importantly, it seems implausible that this treatment is a once-in-a-lifetime affair. I might believe it would last a week, but no more than that. What if someone brushes his teeth? Even if one need no longer worry about cavities, brushing is still required to remove plaque and prevent gum disease.
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until it mutates from mouthwashing bacteria to brainwashing bacteria. (which will then be patented by AOL Time Warner, of course)
Of course, there is the question of why this strain would outcompete the resident S. mutans. After a rather infuriating search of the U.FL website I found http://www.dental.ufl.edu/Offices/Oral_bio/Faculty _pages/JHillman.html which includes a list of peer reviewed journal references.(Note: there isn't much more there.)
A quick read of Infection and Immunity, February 2000, p. 543-549, Vol. 68, No. 2 indicates that they created the GM bacteria by deleting almost the entire gene responsible for lactic acid production (lactic dehydrogenase) and make up for the loss by inserting another alcohol dehydrogenase (from Zymomonas mobilis) in the gap. (Which means the other poster was correct - it produces alcohol instead of lactic acid .) The paper also indicates that the bacteria are able to compete with resident mouth bacteria by producing a "Lantibiotic" antibiotic (mutacin 1140). This antibiotic was not introducd by the researchers, but instead is naturally occuring in the (naturally occuring) strain of S. mutans which they selected (because of the antibiotic).
By intentionally creating something which is viable in the short term, we give a huge (and arbitrary) survival bonus to the changes we have introduced. When something evolves in the wild, it is given many more survival tests along the way as it gradually changes.
These survival tests are also test exposures for other organisms. If you are exposed to a totally new bacteria to which no human has been exposed before, you have no defences tailored to fight that bacteria, even though that bacteria may have been given (intentionally or accidentally) specific weapons to attack you. Humans are likely to have developed a resistance to any non-modified bacteria which they have been in contact with over the generations while it was mutating.
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
Either way, if the new bacteria outcompete the old bacteria (which is the requirment for ensuring that they will take over your mouth), then the new bacteria will probably be better able to survive a Listerene attack than the old one.
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
More importantly, hows it going to affect a breathaliser test?
Games Workshop Petition
Americans eat over 100 lbs. of sugar a year, compared with only 12 pounds in 1900. Maybe the reason we need to keep finding ways to clean our teeth is because we're constantly rotting them out of our heads with our sugar-laden American diet. The overconsumption of sugar also leads to osteoporosis and diabetes.
It would also make antidrug laws a moot point. No honest officer I swear I got high by accident. I picked up this jock itch that causes ergotamine poisoning. Look at all the colors.
How about a variety of bacteria that doesn't produce scatane when it digests food? That would be wonderful. I would suggest that it could make some nice ketones instead, so our farts could smell like bananas or something.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Contrary to popular belief, alcohol breath tests (in the US, anyway) do not detect the presence of alcohol itself, but a metabolized result - excess CO2 in the breath, I think.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.