Blog 15 - Antibiotic Resistant Germs

     I have been really interested in the Lechuguilla Cave lately, because it is very complex and contains a lot of mysteries. It stretches for nearly 1,600 feet! "The bacteria that grow on the walls of its most remote recesses have been living in complete isolation for more than four million years." 

   Gerry Wright, a microbiologist at McMaster University, came to New Mexico all the way from Ontario to preform experiments on the bacteria in the Lechuguilla cave. After culturing the walls and collecting the various bacteria in the cave, he doused them with different drugs that doctors have used for 70 years that can kill bacterial infections. But they bacteria from the cave wouldn't die. They were resistant to 14 antibiotics. 


"Antibiotics were introduced in the mid-1900s. Each time a new drug was introduced, it would take years before bacteria that could resist it became common." 

    This is very strange because usually a microbe has to be exposed to the antibiotic to become resistant. But they bacteria in the cave have been "cut off from the world" for centuries; never exposed to antibiotics. Scientists believe that antibiotic-resistance genes are an ancient part of nature.

    A new study from Dr. Nesme shows that these antibiotic resistant genes can be found in all environments around the world; from Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean. The question then arose, "If these genes are everywhere, what are they doing in bacteria?" Bacteria actually make their own antibiotics to fend off competitors, and can fend off their own poison.  Bacteria use these resistant genes that have nothing to do with antibiotics. What these bacteria use these genes for is unknown. 

This article was really cool to me. Writing these blogs help me learn something new about microbes every time. I wonder if scientists will ever find out what else bacteria is using the resistance genes for. The article was very well written and provided a ton of information, including two different studies from two different scientists. Way cool.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/science/antibiotic-resistant-germs-lying-in-wait.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%23%2Fcave%2Bmicrobes%2F

Blog 14 - "Wild Yeast" Beers

     Since we are heading to the Brewery tomorrow, I decided to check around NY times for an article about beer making. I came across something really odd about the yeasts used by beer/wine maker, Chad Yakobson. It is called Brettanomyces. It is a ‘cousin’ of the domesticated, typical yeasts that are normally brewed with. Brettanomyces is known as “wild yeast” – “a reference to its natural habitat (fruit skins) and to its volatile temperament — “Brett,” as it is widely known, can lead to unpredictable fermentations and gushing beer bottles, aromas politely described as funky, and fear.” Usually brewers don’t want this type of yeast in their beer, and try there hardest to sterilize all the equipment; But not Yakobson. He says that this brings beer back to its roots, before there was sanitization. Brettanomyces creates a whole new category of beers – “Brett Beers.”

    Brewers who use this type of beer making shoot for something along the lines of a pre – WWII Belgian Brewery type beer. Instead of having a typical tasting beer, such as Budweiser, Brett beer’s flavor can vary greatly. The flavors intensify in the bottle, “as the yeast slowly metabolizes complex sugars.” Because the Brett beers are so unique and ‘funky’ brewers think they will never become a mainstream beer. It is also more expensive to brew Brett beer, and there is always a risk that the wild yeasts will contaminate other ‘non-wild’ beers.

    I enjoyed reading this article. It was amazing to see that using ‘wild yeast’ can change the flavor of the beer so drastically. There was really no argument in this article, but it did have a lot of really cool information. The quotes from actual Brett beer brewers helped inform the reader about what the beer is. Pretty cool stuff.

Blog 13 - Mapping the Great Indoors

   Not really knowing what to blog this week, I did a search on the good ole New York Times website; “Cave Microbes.” I was expecting, well, something about microorganisms in caves. But the key words pulled up an article related to microbes indoors. Weird, right?

   The article I found was actually pretty cool. It is about the microbiologist, Dr. Fierer, of Boulder, Colorado, and his studies of all the organisms that live in our homes. Fierer studies microbes in homes to, hopefully, come up with strategies to manage homes, and eliminate all the harmful species, and keeping all the beneficial ones. But first, they need to know what’s inside.

   “Here’s an undeniable fact: We are an indoor species. We spend close to 90 percent of our lives in dry walled caves.” In a typical home, you’ll find humans, dogs, cats, maybe fish, ants, bugs… and billions of microbes. Fierer swabbed 82 surfaces in 4 Boulder homes, and the all the results were similar; bacteria, staphylococcaceae, corynebacteriaceae, molds, species associated with raw produce, etc... I found this part a little crazy: “The microbes living on your pillowcase are not all that different from those living on your toilet seat.”

Fierer came to the conclusion that humans rapidly “infect” the places in which they live. We come in contact with 37 million bacteria per minute, just on our exposed skin.  Dr. Fierer teamed up with Rob Dunn from North Carolina State University, and sampled 1,400+ homes, and the results are still being analyzed.

  I liked this article, it was very well written, and had a lot of information. The intro to the article was cool because it sounded like a story. I had a few questions, like what corynebacteriaceae is, but that was it. This article’s audience was definitely for someone who knows about microbes because it had some terms that I would not have known without this class. Towards the end of the article there were questions that some people had, such as “If you live in a forest, do you have different microbes than if you live in a desert?” in which he replied with “These are questions we don’t have the answer to yet.” Overall good article, but rises a ton of questions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/science/getting-to-know-our-microbial-roommates.html?pagewanted=2

Blog 12 - Demodex Mites

   I was scrolling around the web looking for blog ideas when I came across something known as the Demodex Mite. These things are extremely weird, and a lot of people don’t know anything about them.

“They crawl around your face at night, feeding off your oil and skin cells. They have no anus, so eventually explode inside your hair follicles.”

Yeah, you read that right. And everybody has them. They are completely normal. Even though what they do is very odd. During the day they grow in size feeding off of skin cells and facial oil, then at night the female lay eggs inside hair follicles. When they end up dying, it causes skin inflammation and irritation. What else is gross is that they can be transferred just by touch.

“An overgrowth of the mites has been linked to conditions such as rosacea, where people over the age of 30 develop sensitive red lumps and bumps over their nose or the middle of the face.”

Because they are normal, you cannot just scrub your face because excessive cleaning can lead to other bacteria entering the skin. Just normal washing of the skin can help prevent these nasty things.

This article wasn't the best one I have read this year. It was the only article I could find other than sites like Wikipedia. It did provide a lot of general information, and it was not hard to understand. Anyone could read it for general knowledge about these mites. It had a few doctors talk about the mites to back up the information. But overall, a nice, general article.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/it-eats-your-skin-then-explodes-inside-meet-the-demodex-mite-20140414-36mfj.html

Blog 11 - Drug Resistant Bacteria Found in New Mexico Cave

Deep in the Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, microbiologists have discovered close to 100 types of bacteria that can fight off antibiotic drugs we use today.  The bacteria in the cave coat the walls, all the way down to 1,600 feet below the surface. Because it is so deep, any water that trickles through the surface takes roughly 10 thousand years to reach the caves depths!

    Even though the cave is covered with bacteria, most of it is harmless to humans.  They are completely resistant to antibiotics, including newer synthetic drugs. These microbes will help scientists understand how drug resistant diseases emerge.

    Lechiguilla is the deepest and largest cave system in Carlsbad. It is the seventh known longest cave (130 miles). Until 1986, it was untouched by human activity. Hazel Barton, a scientist from Northern Kentucky University, went in the cave and sampled biofilms. When tested with antibiotics, these strains (known as superbugs) “can immobilize, chew up, or block natural and synthetic antibiotic compounds.

   One of the biggest questions is which came first; Resistance or antibiotics? Were there originally natural antibiotics deep underneath the earth and bacteria grew resistant to it, or the other way around?

More research can help save time, and money; especially for pharmaceutical companies. If a company wants to invest a billion dollars in researching a single antibiotic, scientists should study and know if pathogens can build a resistance to it.

  This article was really cool, especially because it was from a cave here in New Mexico.  It was really well written, and had input from several scientists. I didn’t have any questions after reading it, but the audience is definitely for someone who knows general information about microbes and bacteria. 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120411-drug-resistance-bacteria-caves-diseases-human-health-science/

Blog 10 - Algal Bloom Leads to Manatee Deaths

     Since I have focused most of my research on the Red Tide algae blooms this semester, this was an article I came across. For those of you who don’t know, The Red Tide Algae is a toxic bloom that occurs mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, it is pretty harmless to humans, but it is known for killing massive amounts of sea life. What I didn’t know, is that manatees are suffering greatly from it.

     Manatees are already an endangered species. There are only 5,000 manatees in the Floridian waters and 241 manatees have been killed because of these algae. Experts say the numbers are surely to rise. The dino flagellate microbes that make up the red tide live in warm waters, as do manatees, and the water in Florida is the place for that. Even though the numbers of red algae has dissipated, the toxins from it still live on the grasses and seaweed in the water, and manatees can eat 100 pounds of grass daily.

    Scientists are still puzzled to see why the toxin levels are so high. The brevetoxins can kill mammals, birds, aquatic life, and there have even been cases of respiratory problems in humans. Some think that the mild winters helped the algae live longer. “So far this year, at least 463 manatees have died from a range of causes, more deaths than had been recorded previously” (April 6, 2013). Most deaths tied to poison.

   

     This article was shocking. I couldn’t believe how many manatees have died from the brevetoxins, and scientists still don’t know what to about it. It contained a bunch of information about the problem, and was very well written. I didn’t find any information on this year’s death rates, but hopefully it has gone down, and scientists are coming up with ideas to help stop this problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/science/earth/algae-bloom-in-florida-kills-record-number-of-manatees.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry953%23%2Fred+tide+algae&_r=0

Blog 9 - Interview with Michael Pollan

     Microbes are used a ton in making various foods and drinks; as you know, cheese and beer are the most popular. Brewers and cheesemakers are known as “fermentos”. These are the kind of people who have a very “relaxed attitude” towards bacteria; unlike most people.

     In this article the author, Rachel Nolan, interviews Michael Pollan, a food author. She asked him, “What surprised you most about the microbiome’s possible effects on humans?” Pollan replied with something I have never heard before. What surprised him (and me) most was that our gut microbes can actually obtain genes from our food, thus changing their genetic make-up. For example, people in American have different microbes than people in Japan, because they have a gene that lets them metabolize seaweed. This gene came from a microbe living on the seaweed.

    Rachel then asked Nollan how we can improve our micro biome, in which he responded with that humans should garden. Exposing one’s body to soil can increase “microbial pressure”. He also says that having a dog is good too.

    She continues asking Pollan various questions about micro biomes, but these are the most interesting. This article was very cool because instead of reading a normal article, it was actually an interview with an author of the book “Cooked”. Pollan did a ton of research on microbes, and the article provided a lot of information I didn’t know. The only question I had was what “microbial pressure” was. Overall, it was a cool read

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/behind-the-cover-story-michael-pollan-on-why-bacteria-arent-the-enemy/?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry393%23%2Ffermented%2Bfood%2F