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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > How do bacteria have a strong intergenerational memory?

    How do bacteria have a strong intergenerational memory?

    • Last Update: 2020-08-10
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    "The fish's memory is very short, only 3 seconds.
    ", the classic line from "The Time God Steals", has long been scientifically proven to be inaccurate.
    but if someone told you that not only do fish have a long memory, even bacteria that can't be seen by the naked eye have a memory, and can be passed on to "later people", would you believe it? Recently, Zhao Kun, a professor at Tianjin University's School of Chemical Science, and American researchers have found that there is a memory factor in bacterial cells that can "pass on sensory memories from generation to generation."
    brainless bacteria that stimulate to acquire memory without the central nervous system, much less the brain, how do bacteria have super-superior intergenerational memory? With curiosity, the reporter interviewed Professor Zhao Kun. "I personally have always believed that bacteria have 'memories' and that their offspring can remember ancestral surface sensing signals, "
    .
    ," Zhao said.
    since 2009, Zhao Kun has been engaged in bacterial research, this time with the study of leus bacteria as the object of the experiment has been continued for many years, the research ideas have also been adjusted several times.
    Zhao Kun explains that bacteria do not have the central nervous system, so this "memory" is not what we usually call brain memory in the human cognitive sense.
    in fact, some microbes have been found to have short-lived "memory" behaviors.
    as early as 2016, Swiss scientists found that groups of new crescent bacteria, widespread in fresh water and seawater, can produce a collective memory when exposed to some kind of warning event, such as salt stress, which increases their tolerance for environmental stress.
    ", "the essence of this kind of collective memory behavior is based on the induction of the concentration gradient of external chemical signals, the existence of a relatively short period of time. "The biggest difference from previous studies is that for the first time, our study tracked the behavior of the entire lineage of a single cell and discovered the memory secrets of bacteria, " said Zhao Kun,
    .
    bacterial cells can increase the concentration of a signal molecule that stimulates themselves through surface perception as a 'memory' message that can also be passed across generations, helping future generations adapt to the environment faster and better.
    " the first time to find bacterial bio-film causes reporters learned that Zhao Kun and the United States peer selected the strain of cyanobacteria, can form a biomembrane in the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis patients, and lead to a persistent infection, is a deadly bacteria.
    the bacteria can also form bacterial biofilms on surgical implants such as artificial hips, causing implant failure and human infection.
    reporters reviewed the data found that bacterial biomembrane is a common pathogenic mechanism causing bacterial persistent infection, about 60% of clinical infection cases, are related to the formation of bacterial biofilms.
    But how are reversible and irreversible connections linked in early biological membrane formation? Although these concepts were mentioned as early as the 1930s, it took scientists nearly 90 years to really understand for the first time how they worked together to help drive the formation of early bacterial organisms.
    Zhao Kun also introduced that for bacteria surface attachment, it was often thought that bacteria by increasing their own viscosity (such as the secretion of polysaccharides) to increase the chance of surface attachment, which is a static adaptation of bacteria, but this study completely subverted the previous simple understanding.
    they first found that the expression of signal molecular circulation AMP in bacterial cells, as well as the level of activity of iv-type hairs (the appendages involved in bacterial cell activity), are rhythmically connected to each other, only a few hours apart.
    " bacteria feel and remember through this rhythmic pattern, which is the key to deciding when to stop moving, to remain stationary, to irrescousally attach to a surface, and eventually form a biofilm.
    , " Zhao said with some excitement, "if we can understand and master this intergenerational transmission of bacteria, it may enhance our ability to control the bacterial population."
    "Superbugs or no longer difficult to deal with the reporters learned that long before the results of the study came out, Zhao Kun's team also published in Nature another study on bacterial memory, found and proved that bacteria can remember where they have been, which can help them more easily form bacterial colonies."
    this study reveals, at a more basic level, that bacterial cells can remember information that it perceives on its surface.
    Zhao Kun believes that their research work in the future will be positive for humans to better understand the formation mechanism of biofilms, especially in their early stages, and then better prevent and treat bacterial infections caused by biofilms.
    " the study also offers a new idea of how to stop bacteria from adhering to the surface.
    " Zhao Kun said, "We not only have to consider the viscosity of bacteria, but also by making bacteria 'forgotten' in the future to reduce the surface attachment of bacteria, and thus better control bacterial infection."
    gives us a better understanding of how pathogens can become resistant to antibiotics, which will also help us better address the 'superbug' challenges that we face today to immunize against antibiotics.
    "
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