Bacteria - the True 'Master'/We are Chimeras: Human - Bacteria Hybrids

In fact - we can call us humans- chimeras: bacteria/human hybrids.

People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid
Rowan Hooper 10.11.04 | 2:00 AM
Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial. From the invisible strands of fungi waiting to sprout between our toes, to the kilogram of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking "superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human cells, bacteria, fungi and viruses

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Are you feeling calm? Now listen carefully and don't panic. You are suffering from a serious crisis of identity. Scientists
believe you are not entirely human. In fact, it's time to stop thinking of yourself as an individual, or even as a single
living thing. You are a hybrid that consists of only about 10 per cent human cells. The rest of you is made up of
microbes.
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We are entierly dependent on the microbial population for our wellbeing. A shift within this population, can trigger defects in metabolism nad development of diseases...

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Organelle ( power machine) in our cells have their own DNA ( mtDNA ) and it's evolutionary origin is different than our nuclear DNA - it is the result of endosymbiosis of bacterial prokaryotic cell ( cell with no nucleus ) and eukaryotic cell ( one with nucleus ). Not to mention that all eucaryotic cells just evolves from bacteria, in the first place.

mtDNA //wiki

In our guts, intestinal tract and elsewhere there are more than 500 ( and more than 1 200 in human faeces ) different species of bacteria ( many unknown to us )- making up more than 100 trillion cells compared to just several trillion human cells! Outnumbered - we do not evolved on our own! Studying human genome - bacteria genome seem to be pivotal!

They digest our food - because we human digestive track doesn't contain specific enzymes. Complex sugars ( polysaccharides ) just pass through our small intestine - with our genes we are not able to digest them - that job ( fermentation process ) is done by bacteria living in our colon. No food - no energy for us without these symbiotic relationship.

Vitamin K , whose deficiency causes impaired blood clotting and internal bleeding ( even without any injury ), is synthesized by bacteria living in the gut. Or vitamin B12.

We are curing ourselves against other non-friendly bacteria with antibiotics produced by bacteria.

bacteria and technology

Are we superorganism ( community of different organisms ) rather than just one organism!?

And: what if bacteria 'decide' to abandon us, finding some other food source !? Are we here as long as bacteria 'allow' us to be!?

Are they truly 'masters' of the planet Earth!?
.... even more... research and experiments done on International Space Station are telling us - bacteria do pretty nice: they grow better....
bacteria in zero-g /nasa /

Excellent post!

I agree with most everything you said except a couple of points. Although the human body does contain a large number of bacteria (somewhere around 200 species according to conservative estimates) and organelles like Mitochondria, which have their ancestory in endosymbiotic prokaryotic cells, it does not necessarily mean we are chimeras. A chimera, by definition, is a mammal that was conceived from two seperate zygotes and each population of cells have their own distinct genetic features. This can occur in a number of different ways, but the term itself represents a characteristic of one organism with two seperate forms of DNA born from two seperate embryos.

Now, the interesting thing concerning the aforementioned evolution of Mitochondria is that most known bacteria are anaerobic, and Mitochondria are almost strictly preform aerobic functions inside Eukaryotic cells. These organelles are the sole "generator" in the final steps of cellular respiration; they carry out Oxidative Respiration by breaking down Pyruvate form during Glycolysis and release CO2. This process is imperative to cellular Eukaryotic function as it produces most of the Adenosine 5 Triphosphate (ATP, oxygen, and energy for the cell. Studies of this organelle have shown they share a common ancestor with ancient Proteobacteria, however, after their convergence will mammal cells they began to function alongside their cooperative host. This does not imply that all cells are chimeras and that by definition, so are humans. This is a very facinating area of biology, and I would reccommend anyone interested further explore the Theory of Endosymbiosis, which concludes that both Mitochondria and Plastids are derived from a bacterial ancestor.

Now, to answer your question, "Are they truely masters of planet Earth?" I would say they are an abundant organism, that's for sure, but I would suggest that they are not the "master", as that is clearly occupied by the ultimate predators...viruses. There are certain Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), that would put any known bacteria to shame in the way they infect and take over the host.

reply to post by Jazzerman


Thank you Jazzerman for your great replay!

Virus is dependent on host - and bacteria ( 'one celled living animal' with complete set of RNA and DNA )can thrive on if all other life on Earth is wiped out. It is self contained and self reproducing entity.

This I found incredible: using/cooperating with bacteria in curing cancer and promoting bio-intelligence in bacteria - using bacteria colective thinking to produce self-programming computer with biological artificial intelligence:

- mutating bacteria to incorporate carbon nanotube within their cell wall (" Carbon nanotubes are specifically chosen because they have electronic properties that can be useful much later when the bacteria might want to "think" at MegaHertz and GigaHertz speeds")

- bacteria start to use nanotube to benefit themselves

- such bacteria form symbiosis with other bacteria to the level of collective symbiosis

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Once the bacteria for collective conglomerates that are thinking we enrich the language used inside the collective conglomerate through external processes. Language is the ability to convert experience into abstract symbols and it is a means of communication within a living entity (collective sphere) or from one entity (collective sphere) to another living entity (collective sphere). Several collective spheres (or balls) will acquire the same symbolism or language for the same experience and communicate with each other.

We can use exposure to different chemical or bio-chemical signals, different electrical stimulation, different magnetic stimulation, different electromagnetic stimulation, acoustic stimulation, mechanical stimulation, forcing in contact with other collective bodies, living cells, dead cells, cells in-vitro and in-vivo to stimulate the bacterial collectives.

In the above fashion, we propose to impress on bacteria a thinking collective that can be used to produce a self-programming computer with biological artificial intelligence. This exploits the collective properties of the bacteria and their ability to have language that living things innately have.

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Bacteria are pretty amazing in their adaptability. Part of the mechanism relies on their generations being of such a short timespan, so that the whole colony can change its genetic code many times within a human lifetime.

Which brings up an interesting point... an "organic trend" in the past 30 years is to eat yoghurt with acidophilus and other needed bacteria. But these new ones aren't necessarily adapted for your own body but rather for another physical being (the cow or something else.)

...just pondering, here.... need to do a bit more reading on it.

Which brings up an interesting point... an "organic trend" in the past 30 years is to eat yoghurt with acidophilus and other needed bacteria. But these new ones aren't necessarily adapted for your own body but rather for another physical being (the cow or something else.)

THAT is actually a VERY interesting point, if you do happen apon any info regarding this point, i would be very interested to hear it.

Just how adaptable ARE these bacteria when taken from other animals, the symbiosis these microbes share with other animals must be finally balanced.

cheers
AoN