Adventurous Life of Microbes, a MICRO-C-OMICS series
- G. Gulez
- May 7, 2017
- 2 min read
It has been always in some part of my mind to make microbial comics, in fact I was considering to publish a comic version of my thesis years ago. But somehow I have not acted on it, until recently. Last week, I had to lecture on social life of the microorganisms to a group of undergraduate students from Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering departments. So, my talk had to be simple and accessible to someone who is not familiar with microbiology (I do the same even if I present to fellow scientists, being simple without compromising the scientific integrity to deliver my message). I was looking for images and videos to show examples of social interactions in microbes. But most images were not very informative or accessible. That was when I decided to make comics of certain microbial interactions. And I would like to share them in my website for educational purposes as well. Indeed, it is start of my MICRO-C-OMICS series. I hope you will have fun while learning about the fantastic life of microorganisms.
MICRO-C-OMICS #1. Social Life of Microorganisms: Competition
Microorganisms have a rich and complex social life. Yes, you heard me, they do have a social life. Social interactions can be competitive or cooperative. Today, I will talk about the competitive interactions. Like students who are competing to get in graduate school, microorganisms also compete to survive! How would you increase your chance of getting in the graduate school? Having high grades would definitely give you competitive edge to eliminate other students, right? Similarly, microbial cells have traits, certain features, to increase their chance of competition.
There are many ways microorganisms can compete. One way to do that is by changing the environment so that the competitor cells could not survive. Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria produce lactic acid. Lactic acid decreases the pH and turns the environment into an acidic one. Acidic environment inhibits the growth of another bacterial species called Neisseria gonorrhea.
Another way of competing is to produce toxic metabolic byproducts. For example, Streptococcus pneumonia produce a toxic compound called hydrogen peroxide to kill other cells in the neighborhood. That is also how S. pneumonia harm human body when they infect lungs as hydrogen peroxide damages DNA of the lung cells!
Microorganisms can also make their own weapons to target other cells. For example, Escherichia coli bacteria secrete an antibiotic, called “colicin”, to kill other microorganism around. E.coli bacteria are not affected by the colicin because they have immunity gene to protect themselves from their own antibiotic.
