[HN Gopher] The ocean teems with networks of interconnected bact...
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The ocean teems with networks of interconnected bacteria
Author : abe94
Score : 56 points
Date : 2025-01-27 14:24 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
| efitz wrote:
| Eywa
| asdasdsddd wrote:
| Can someone explain why there arent more multicellular bacteria?
| Terr_ wrote:
| Not yet, it seems to be an open question.
|
| See: "The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes"
|
| https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-mystery-of-the-missing-mu...
| PaulHoule wrote:
| There probably are an awful lot of them. Of all the bacteria
| that exist in the world (detectable by genomic methods) only a
| tiny fraction can be isolated and grown on their own. [1][2]
|
| In many cases it might be that we just don't know how to
| provide the right environment, but part of it is that many
| bacteria only grow together with partner bacteria of other
| species [3] [4] For that matter, there are many bacteria that
| have lifestyles based around living on biofilms created by
| conspecifics. [5]
|
| [1] Like dark matter
|
| [2] https://www.worldwidejournals.com/international-journal-
| of-s...
|
| [3]
| https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/microbio/chapter/10-2-...
|
| [4] https://teamaquafix.com/sulfide-reducing-
| bacteria/?form=MG0A...
|
| [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm
| hinkley wrote:
| One of my long bets is that there are bacteria causing
| gastroenteritis that do not reproduce on growth media. I
| doubt very much that all of our problems are caused by
| chemicals.
|
| There's too many stories in modern medicine still that sound
| like, "if we can't see it, you're not sick." There's at least
| one more h pylori out there somewhere.
| baxtr wrote:
| What would Occam says about this though?
| wswope wrote:
| Occam's razor doesn't matter for shit when it comes to
| biology.
|
| The vast majority of GIs would agree with the grandparent
| post, but it even goes deeper than that. Pathogenicity of
| common bacteria is heavily mediated through HGT and
| interspecies microbial signaling - meaning that there's
| plenty we don't know about even the most studied
| organisms when they're in a dynamic environment with
| other neighbors.
|
| In other words, we know there are multiple layers of
| activity taking place that we've barely scratched the
| surface on research-wise, so we have good reason to
| believe that simpler explanations are almost certainly
| reductive and wrong.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| When results started coming out about the microbiome and
| health and there weren't any practical results (a poop
| pill that changes things) I thought it was one of those
| fads like gluten free or high-functioning autism.
|
| The results have kept coming and it's hard not to believe
| the gut-health connection now but it's still frustrating
| that it doesn't translate to any therapy.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| Reminds me of Greg Bear's _Blood Music_ and even _Vitals_.
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