There is a very good reason that the a large number of soil organisms are resistant to antibiotics.
All antibiotics used today have originated or have been derived from natural sources. Don't think for a minute that resistance to penicillin came about since humans started using it, oh no, bacteria have been protecting themselves against natural antibiotics for eons. Humans did not invent antibiotics nature/God/life invented them. So finding resistance in nature should not be suprising.
Soil bacteria should especially be used to defending themselves against antibiotics because they make antibiotics themselves. The majority of all antibiotics used to day have been developed from products made by the family of bacteria called Actinomyces (spelling?), especially from the genus Streptomyces. Drugs like Streptomycin, and penicillin are naturally found in soil, made by these bacteria, and these bacteria certainly don't kill themselves, their resistant to their own offences.
Don't be too weary of resistant soil germs, most of them are harmless (except anthrax and a few), the most dangerous bacteria are probably living on your face right now (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomons aeriginosa)..
I'm lucky in that i get full access to Nature through my university library. Though I have never heard of a gene specific protein-mediated repair mechanism, it may exisist.
As for the exact mutation, there were 3 single base point missense mutations that were seperatly looked, and all three seperatly reverted back to a sequence that was homologus to previous generations, even tho that particular sequence was not found anywhere else in the genome. So where was this hidden information genome?
DNA repair relies on that an organism can identify an error in it's DNA. DNA repair relies on the fact that DNA is a redundant double strand and that at least one copy will be correct, this is much much differnt. We have a species, Arabidopsis thaliana that has a homozygous mutaion in a gene called HOTHEAD. (For non geeks homozygous means that both parents donated the same mutant copy of the gene) This mutant was then crossed with itself (insert masturbation joke) and the off spring had a corrected, normal type gene. The normal version of the gene wasn't located in the parents! Random mutation was ruled out, recombination with other genes was ruled out, and there were no other copies of the gene in the DNA to act as spell checks. The closest source of a working gene copy was the grandparents, and this is incredible. And further more they're work suggested that this gene is not unique in it's mode of inheritance and may be genome wide. If anyone doubts the impact of these findings, you only need to see the cover of the next edition of the jounal NATURE, not a place that highlights insignifcant findings.
I have to admit i ahve yet to read the article, but did write a lengthy report on the subject last semester... The region of DNA they are using as a barcode is a 561 bp stretch of the cox1 gene, which encodes Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit 1. The gene is found in the mitochondrial DNA in all animals and plants, and many homologues are in bacteria and other forms of life. There are some great resources out there
http://barcodinglife.com/, The official site. Or for the geeky, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, GenBank, search for cox1, it's the second most sequenced gene on the planet, you'll find it's sequence and other info you can play with 'bioinformatically'.
If anyone is interested Cytochrome C Oxidase is the final protein in your electron transport chain. It is the enzyme that reduces oxygen in your body (try breathing in!), and is found in 'nearly' all life that lives in oxygen.
Try looking for something in Whistler, or find my place in Edmonton,
Darn americans still think anyone north of vancouver/toronto/montreal still doesn't have internet/power/fire etc...
As a current Genetics student, the question is a
virus alive comes up a surprising amount in every
class (funny, the least of which in my virology
class). Each teacher lists the textbooks answers:
Can't replicate without help, have no metabolic
activity out side of the host, etc... But personally
I tend to believe viruses aren't alive for a different
reason, sort of a-slippery-slope argument,
If viruses were deemed 'alive' then we would be
forced to extend the label to other things that
are clearly (in my eyes) not alive. Things like
prions, transposons and plasmids all act like viruses
This whole discussion was only academic till patents
are brought up. Personally I do believe biological
innovation comes from money, I believe patents
need to be applied to life just like software or
velcro. If these inventions are truly novel, their
inventors deserve to benefit. So i believe viral
state of life ends up only mattering to philosophers.
Not to be too redundant, but Sony's MDR-ex71's are great.. I haven't listened to too many headsets, and I am no audiophile, but I can't let this post go by without giving the respect these deserve. Sony increased my iPod value 10 fold..
HIV is the virus, AIDS is the symptoms.
No you can never directly die from HIV, HIV only infects CD4 positive cells; ie, T-Helper Cells. Unfortunatly T-Helper Cells are nessecary for an active responsive immune system, without it, you quickly succumb to a multitude of usually harmless diseases that can kill, eg herpes...
some countries in africa the possibility of contracting HIV during your lifetime is now nearly 100% for teenagers.
My job never brings me into richmond, but just south of you on Westham Island is the Riefel Bird Sanctuary and Alaksen National Wildlife Area, both (especially Riefel) are infested with loosestrife. In Ladner, the South Arm Marshes have a particularly dense population of loosestrife. One thing to note, purple loosestrife was/is an ornamental flower, so it is often just regarded as a pretty wildflower, but one you recognize it, you'll see it everywhere
--Mike
I currently work for Ducks Unlimited and pick purple loosestrife nearly 3 times a week. The stuff is horrible. If there are roots left it'll grow back and the flowers make a million seeds, ugh! I can say that purple loosestrife has ruined some of BC's (i'm in Vancouver) finest parks, and I have seen these beetles in action, they work to keep it in check, but they are no final solution..
I don't have any programming knowledge but I am currently studying Genetics and Immunology at University and...
I am amazed the similarity between computer viruses and real viruses.
These computer viruses are evolving just like real ones. Albeit, these viruses need deliberate input from hosts, they are changing.. What scares me is what happens when a coder learns how real viruses (like Nesseria gonorrhea ) can change their 'signature' randomly and constantly. Then we all will be screwed..
I currently attend University of Alberta and I think there may be something everyone has overlooked... At negative 40 degrees it is much healthier to be in front of a computer than going outside.. I know I do my best to stay inside....
I got both "More Human than Human" by White Zombie and "Rockafella Skank" By Fatboy Slim at the same time. It was when i was on a 28.8k modem and found the songs on a website, remember those days, MP3 websites were the bomb!
Slashdot Mirror
There is a very good reason that the a large number of soil organisms are resistant to antibiotics.
All antibiotics used today have originated or have been derived from natural sources. Don't think for a minute that resistance to penicillin came about since humans started using it, oh no, bacteria have been protecting themselves against natural antibiotics for eons. Humans did not invent antibiotics nature/God/life invented them. So finding resistance in nature should not be suprising.
Soil bacteria should especially be used to defending themselves against antibiotics because they make antibiotics themselves. The majority of all antibiotics used to day have been developed from products made by the family of bacteria called Actinomyces (spelling?), especially from the genus Streptomyces. Drugs like Streptomycin, and penicillin are naturally found in soil, made by these bacteria, and these bacteria certainly don't kill themselves, their resistant to their own offences.
Don't be too weary of resistant soil germs, most of them are harmless (except anthrax and a few), the most dangerous bacteria are probably living on your face right now (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomons aeriginosa)..
Someone mod this up, this is THE funniest post on slashdot i have ever read!!!
As for the exact mutation, there were 3 single base point missense mutations that were seperatly looked, and all three seperatly reverted back to a sequence that was homologus to previous generations, even tho that particular sequence was not found anywhere else in the genome. So where was this hidden information genome?
The title of the primary article is "Genome-wide", I guess RTF Title is in order. This work suggest that this gene might not be unique.
Lolle is listed in NATURE as the primary author, I think that's more important than an NYT interview
DNA repair relies on that an organism can identify an error in it's DNA. DNA repair relies on the fact that DNA is a redundant double strand and that at least one copy will be correct, this is much much differnt. We have a species, Arabidopsis thaliana that has a homozygous mutaion in a gene called HOTHEAD. (For non geeks homozygous means that both parents donated the same mutant copy of the gene) This mutant was then crossed with itself (insert masturbation joke) and the off spring had a corrected, normal type gene. The normal version of the gene wasn't located in the parents! Random mutation was ruled out, recombination with other genes was ruled out, and there were no other copies of the gene in the DNA to act as spell checks. The closest source of a working gene copy was the grandparents, and this is incredible. And further more they're work suggested that this gene is not unique in it's mode of inheritance and may be genome wide. If anyone doubts the impact of these findings, you only need to see the cover of the next edition of the jounal NATURE, not a place that highlights insignifcant findings.
The region of DNA they are using as a barcode is a 561 bp stretch of the cox1 gene, which encodes Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit 1.
The gene is found in the mitochondrial DNA in all animals and plants, and many homologues are in bacteria and other forms of life.
There are some great resources out there
http://barcodinglife.com/, The official site.
Or for the geeky, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, GenBank, search for cox1, it's the second most sequenced gene on the planet,
you'll find it's sequence and other info you can play with 'bioinformatically'.
If anyone is interested Cytochrome C Oxidase is the final protein in your electron transport chain.
It is the enzyme that reduces oxygen in your body (try breathing in!), and is found in 'nearly' all life that lives in oxygen.
Darn americans still think anyone north of vancouver/toronto/montreal still doesn't have internet/power/fire etc...
ugh...
Some think that all life came from some simple molecules of RNA,
Where does chemistry end, and life begin?
virus alive comes up a surprising amount in every
class (funny, the least of which in my virology
class). Each teacher lists the textbooks answers:
Can't replicate without help, have no metabolic
activity out side of the host, etc... But personally
I tend to believe viruses aren't alive for a different
reason, sort of a-slippery-slope argument,
If viruses were deemed 'alive' then we would be
forced to extend the label to other things that
are clearly (in my eyes) not alive. Things like
prions, transposons and plasmids all act like viruses
This whole discussion was only academic till patents
are brought up. Personally I do believe biological
innovation comes from money, I believe patents
need to be applied to life just like software or
velcro. If these inventions are truly novel, their
inventors deserve to benefit. So i believe viral
state of life ends up only mattering to philosophers.
Not to be too redundant, but Sony's MDR-ex71's are great..
I haven't listened to too many headsets, and I am no audiophile, but I can't let this post go by without giving the respect these deserve.
Sony increased my iPod value 10 fold..
HIV is the virus, AIDS is the symptoms. No you can never directly die from HIV, HIV only infects CD4 positive cells; ie, T-Helper Cells. Unfortunatly T-Helper Cells are nessecary for an active responsive immune system, without it, you quickly succumb to a multitude of usually harmless diseases that can kill, eg herpes... some countries in africa the possibility of contracting HIV during your lifetime is now nearly 100% for teenagers.
My job never brings me into richmond, but just south of you on Westham Island is the Riefel Bird Sanctuary and Alaksen National Wildlife Area, both (especially Riefel) are infested with loosestrife. In Ladner, the South Arm Marshes have a particularly dense population of loosestrife. One thing to note, purple loosestrife was/is an ornamental flower, so it is often just regarded as a pretty wildflower, but one you recognize it, you'll see it everywhere --Mike
I currently work for Ducks Unlimited and pick purple loosestrife nearly 3 times a week. The stuff is horrible. If there are roots left it'll grow back and the flowers make a million seeds, ugh! I can say that purple loosestrife has ruined some of BC's (i'm in Vancouver) finest parks, and I have seen these beetles in action, they work to keep it in check, but they are no final solution..
More than nearly any game, the characters were so truly different. They had nothing alike, so much replay value.
I am amazed the similarity between computer viruses and real viruses.
These computer viruses are evolving just like real ones. Albeit, these viruses need deliberate input from hosts, they are changing.. What scares me is what happens when a coder learns how real viruses (like Nesseria gonorrhea ) can change their 'signature' randomly and constantly. Then we all will be screwed..
So lets keep CompSci people out of the Bio labs!
I currently attend University of Alberta and I think there may be something everyone has overlooked... At negative 40 degrees it is much healthier to be in front of a computer than going outside.. I know I do my best to stay inside....
I got both "More Human than Human" by White Zombie and "Rockafella Skank" By Fatboy Slim at the same time. It was when i was on a 28.8k modem and found the songs on a website, remember those days, MP3 websites were the bomb!
What is the legal stance on purposely creating code that is designed to subvert copyrights and licenses???