Very possible—in which case they either also function as time capsules from various points in history, or they're close enough to a circulating system that there's nothing interesting. I'm sure the people working on this project expected to find something that dated to the last freeze.
Yyyyeah, well... if it was only isolated from the rest of the biological tree for 25 million years, we'd only see about 0.5-1% difference in the 16S rRNA. TFA reported (what I think) is at least 14% difference, which is at least 700 million years. Either all of its relatives died off, or it's been down there at that thermal vent this whole time, only vaguely aware (in an "evolutionary pressures" kinda sense) of the ice around it.
Viruses decide what to stick to by looking for unique features on the outsides of cells. Bacteria are more or less all the same on the inside, so once it's in, it's in. Phages have their own reproductive machinery for the most part; they just need a cell to reside in. One of the unique features they can stick to are glycoproteins and glycolipids embedded in the exterior cell wall (a second phospholipid bilayer that surrounds the membrane). To be honest it's fairly likely that these evolve so quickly that no phage would be able to recognize them—i.e., the arms race has moved on—but an exceptionally nonspecific phage might still be able to exploit it, or this old species might have a stump of a more complex carbohydrate tree found on newer species (the opposite of a master key, if you will.) I'm not really a membrane buff, though, so I can't tell you much more than that.
I wouldn't put it quite that way—there are still other countries and cultures where gender equality is much worse, and still conservatives in the English-speaking world who have regressive views on things like abortion and rape—but essentially that's my response, yes. I'm not sure what you're getting at by saying my response is incomplete; tqk said "feminism is a movement that merely seeks benefits for women" and I replied that it only looks that way on the surface. What else were you hoping for?
...Good call, although I still stand by the 16S rRNA inference. 86% whole-genome homology would place it well within known territory; there's more variety in Escherichia coli than that.
It's fairly probable that the last time this species was circulating in the general biosphere, animals hadn't been invented yet. It may be older than multicellular life altogether.
There's a good chance it has some neat antifreeze proteins. It's most likely very vulnerable to antibiotics, though; biological war far is an arms race. We can only learn from analysing the enemy and things similar to it.
If not phages then something else. Protists. Nematodes. If it's really been isolated for this long, it probably has a really slow doubling time; that may be bad enough that predation could overwhelm it.
That being said, though, evolutionary pressure is still key. Viruses are host-specific because the hosts keep changing; an older bacterium is more likely to have exploitable sugar moieties on its surface.
Steinam's an excellent example of well-meaning-but-deluded second-wave feminism. She objected to pornography, including gay pornography, because she believed all of it contained themes of domination and submission. To her, that automatically meant "man dominating woman" or some oblique reference to that. (One wonders how 50 Shades of Gray went over with her.) She had a lot of assumptions about what was essential to womanhood, and they weren't always right. Everyone did in the 60s and 70s.
But I really think even she was a victim of the context in which she flourished. The middle of the twentieth century was a lot more heated; you only have to go back to the fifties and sixties to find universities that refused entry to women. It provoked a very militant backlash, just like the black separatist movement was formed in response to the challenges facing the civil rights movement. Once there was a clear alternative (and the novelty had worn off), non-egalitarian radicals like Steinam were left behind.
She is so deluded that she genuinely believes she speaks for all women. She's a victim of her own success. I liked the early Steinem. There was once a survey conducted for Time about who would make a good candidate for the first female president, and I wrote in Gloria Steinem. But now? Gloria Steinem is dissing men and dissing fashion and she's out having her hair streaked at Kenneth's. She became a socialite with a coterie. A lot of middle-aged white ladies still love her, but the media have been negligent regarding her.
– Camille Paglia
Based on circumstantial evidence (another species found nearby), the bacterium is a thermophile that depends on geothermal heat for warmth. Because of the way thermophiles evolve, it is pretty much certain that the proteins in this species are non-functional at colder temperatures; the samples collected were either dead or in a deep state of antifreeze-clogged hibernation.
It's also 700 million years (or more!) behind on immune defences, which means it's vulnerable to everything from the toxins that all plants constantly secret all the time to the macrophages in our blood. The immune game is a Red Queen scenario—either a pathogen is at the forefront of innovation, or it's susceptible to the most basic form of detection.
The only environment this could possibly intrude upon is one comparable to its own—maybe a heat vent in another frozen lake. Even if it wasn't a thermophile, it would be dead meat on the surface because of bacteriophages (viruses). To add insult to injury, as far as we know this bacterium has no competitors and is not part of a community, making it highly unlikely that it has any competition or any defences.
Gene retention is like lactose tolerance—if you don't use it, you'll lose it. For animals, this typically takes a few thousand years. For bacteria it happens much more quickly. They're very simple organisms, and they're very good at adapting, but only if they've had time to adjust to their new setting. In this case, every single one of its (probably several thousand) genes has spent millions of years being fine-tuned for the most boring environment possible. It has absolutely no hope.
Actually, there's a pretty good chance it'll die off before then. It's been isolated for at least half a million years (possibly a lot longer), and their drill bit was contaminated with at least sixteen species of other bacteria. You get the picture—entropy, genies, bottles, et cetera.
I'm not exactly sure if this invalidates your comment, but Uranus is not believed to have a distinct surface underneath its atmosphere. The most popular model suggests that it just gets denser and denser, culminating in a rapidly-spinning mantle-ocean of water, ammonia, and other gasses long before the actual rocky core.
I don't think it's published yet. TFA mentions "less than" 86% DNA "similarity", which I think was supposed to be 86% 16S RNA homology, in which case, the bacterium has been separated from the nearest known species for at least 700 million years.
Slashdot Mirror
Very possible—in which case they either also function as time capsules from various points in history, or they're close enough to a circulating system that there's nothing interesting. I'm sure the people working on this project expected to find something that dated to the last freeze.
I think the focus has largely shifted to looking at how women's rights are handled in developing countries.
You may think you're very clever, young man, very clever—but it's linear algebra all the way down!
Yyyyeah, well... if it was only isolated from the rest of the biological tree for 25 million years, we'd only see about 0.5-1% difference in the 16S rRNA. TFA reported (what I think) is at least 14% difference, which is at least 700 million years. Either all of its relatives died off, or it's been down there at that thermal vent this whole time, only vaguely aware (in an "evolutionary pressures" kinda sense) of the ice around it.
That sounds like it's straight out of his autobiography.
I tried that last night. My homework didn't go away. This time I'm hoping it magically disappears while I'm posting on Slashdot.
Not if it disintegrates at atmospheric pressure!
Viruses decide what to stick to by looking for unique features on the outsides of cells. Bacteria are more or less all the same on the inside, so once it's in, it's in. Phages have their own reproductive machinery for the most part; they just need a cell to reside in. One of the unique features they can stick to are glycoproteins and glycolipids embedded in the exterior cell wall (a second phospholipid bilayer that surrounds the membrane). To be honest it's fairly likely that these evolve so quickly that no phage would be able to recognize them—i.e., the arms race has moved on—but an exceptionally nonspecific phage might still be able to exploit it, or this old species might have a stump of a more complex carbohydrate tree found on newer species (the opposite of a master key, if you will.) I'm not really a membrane buff, though, so I can't tell you much more than that.
I wouldn't put it quite that way—there are still other countries and cultures where gender equality is much worse, and still conservatives in the English-speaking world who have regressive views on things like abortion and rape—but essentially that's my response, yes. I'm not sure what you're getting at by saying my response is incomplete; tqk said "feminism is a movement that merely seeks benefits for women" and I replied that it only looks that way on the surface. What else were you hoping for?
Finally, someone else noticed!
...Good call, although I still stand by the 16S rRNA inference. 86% whole-genome homology would place it well within known territory; there's more variety in Escherichia coli than that.
The worst (?) part is that I didn't get any funny moderations.
It's fairly probable that the last time this species was circulating in the general biosphere, animals hadn't been invented yet. It may be older than multicellular life altogether.
...warfare. Ouch. The typos. They burns us, Bagginses.
I don't think it's old enough for that. Eukarya appears 2 gya.
There's a good chance it has some neat antifreeze proteins. It's most likely very vulnerable to antibiotics, though; biological war far is an arms race. We can only learn from analysing the enemy and things similar to it.
If not phages then something else. Protists. Nematodes. If it's really been isolated for this long, it probably has a really slow doubling time; that may be bad enough that predation could overwhelm it.
That being said, though, evolutionary pressure is still key. Viruses are host-specific because the hosts keep changing; an older bacterium is more likely to have exploitable sugar moieties on its surface.
Steinam's an excellent example of well-meaning-but-deluded second-wave feminism. She objected to pornography, including gay pornography, because she believed all of it contained themes of domination and submission. To her, that automatically meant "man dominating woman" or some oblique reference to that. (One wonders how 50 Shades of Gray went over with her.) She had a lot of assumptions about what was essential to womanhood, and they weren't always right. Everyone did in the 60s and 70s.
But I really think even she was a victim of the context in which she flourished. The middle of the twentieth century was a lot more heated; you only have to go back to the fifties and sixties to find universities that refused entry to women. It provoked a very militant backlash, just like the black separatist movement was formed in response to the challenges facing the civil rights movement. Once there was a clear alternative (and the novelty had worn off), non-egalitarian radicals like Steinam were left behind.
She is so deluded that she genuinely believes she speaks for all women. She's a victim of her own success. I liked the early Steinem. There was once a survey conducted for Time about who would make a good candidate for the first female president, and I wrote in Gloria Steinem. But now? Gloria Steinem is dissing men and dissing fashion and she's out having her hair streaked at Kenneth's. She became a socialite with a coterie. A lot of middle-aged white ladies still love her, but the media have been negligent regarding her. – Camille Paglia
Once upon a time, being attacked by Martians was a good setup for a science fiction novel. Times change, I'm afraid.
What? You mean you're not basking in the glow of a monitor in your mother's basement?
Based on circumstantial evidence (another species found nearby), the bacterium is a thermophile that depends on geothermal heat for warmth. Because of the way thermophiles evolve, it is pretty much certain that the proteins in this species are non-functional at colder temperatures; the samples collected were either dead or in a deep state of antifreeze-clogged hibernation.
It's also 700 million years (or more!) behind on immune defences, which means it's vulnerable to everything from the toxins that all plants constantly secret all the time to the macrophages in our blood. The immune game is a Red Queen scenario—either a pathogen is at the forefront of innovation, or it's susceptible to the most basic form of detection.
The only environment this could possibly intrude upon is one comparable to its own—maybe a heat vent in another frozen lake. Even if it wasn't a thermophile, it would be dead meat on the surface because of bacteriophages (viruses). To add insult to injury, as far as we know this bacterium has no competitors and is not part of a community, making it highly unlikely that it has any competition or any defences.
Gene retention is like lactose tolerance—if you don't use it, you'll lose it. For animals, this typically takes a few thousand years. For bacteria it happens much more quickly. They're very simple organisms, and they're very good at adapting, but only if they've had time to adjust to their new setting. In this case, every single one of its (probably several thousand) genes has spent millions of years being fine-tuned for the most boring environment possible. It has absolutely no hope.
Actually, there's a pretty good chance it'll die off before then. It's been isolated for at least half a million years (possibly a lot longer), and their drill bit was contaminated with at least sixteen species of other bacteria. You get the picture—entropy, genies, bottles, et cetera.
I'm not exactly sure if this invalidates your comment, but Uranus is not believed to have a distinct surface underneath its atmosphere. The most popular model suggests that it just gets denser and denser, culminating in a rapidly-spinning mantle-ocean of water, ammonia, and other gasses long before the actual rocky core.
He was given a sample of water from the lake before they had punched through—so... ten years ago, I'd guess? At the latest?
I don't think it's published yet. TFA mentions "less than" 86% DNA "similarity", which I think was supposed to be 86% 16S RNA homology, in which case, the bacterium has been separated from the nearest known species for at least 700 million years.