In her book “Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity and Finding Your Life’s Purpose,” The Sociologist and Life Coach Martha Beck Description You Describe Two Different Ways Humans Group in Society: One Structure Is Based On Rules Rules, and Government Government, and Government, and Government, and Government, and Government, and Governments, and Government, and Government, and Government, and Government, and the Government, and the Government, and Government, and the Government, and the Government, and the Government’s systems. Based on personal ideals. These idealistic social cells and calls do not have a clear leader. Instead, they move towards a common goal promoted by a desire for connection.
While it is not exactly a social science, it turns out that bacteria have their own versions of these social structures, and because the Early fossil evidence Because on our planet it was in fact bacterial, studying how bacteria live together can help microbiologists to assemble how life began on earth a long time ago. One day, it can help us discover life on other planets.
In this sense, in investigation Published last year, scientists promote the behavior of a type of bacteria called multicellular magnetactic bacteria (MMB). What they found was fascinating: MMB has a peculiar form of grouping. Despite each member of this existing bacterial clan as a unique organism, none of them can survive in that way. Instead, they combine and act as a giant and multicellular organism that scientists call “consortiums.”
Another special element of MMB is the “magnetotactic” in its name, which does so is oriented according to the Earth’s magnetic field. If you compare MMB with a social cell of people, which changes towards a social ideal, MMB is oriented and knows where to be based on the magnetic poles of the earth.
MMB lands “somewhere between a unique organism and much more” Roland Hatzenpichler, microbiologist and associated professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the State University of Montana, saider and author of the New Research, and author of the New Research.com. He described the consortia as “30 to 100 cells” living together. The great existence of MMB also suggests that they can be trapped in one of the “bottlenecks” or the formation of life on earth, according to Hatzenpichler.
In other words, perhaps MMB, trapped is in a stage of evolution between a unicellular organism and a more complex and multicellular way of life, such as an insect or a fish.
In other words, maybe MMB was not meean to be a uniformed organism, but he simply could not make the transition to his multicellular future.
MMB not only wants to stay connected, it is necessary for survival.
Where is MMB?
The study researchers obtained their MMB samples from a tidal pool in Massachusetts, which Hatzenpichler is a known signs of purple sulfur bacteria. He described the sediment that the MMB contains as brown with purple points.
“The pond is basically this brown and sticky sediment,” said Hatzenpichler. “Tickets are these purple bacteria.”
In terms of all known life on Earth, there really is no other organism that compares with MMB, Hatzenpichler said.
There are different MMB species, said Hatzenpichler, “but they are all a good relationship with each other.”
Working together; dying together
Compared to unicellular organisms, which can swim freely using their whip -shaped tails known as “flagella”, MMB has some communication to do to move. Otherwise, there would be a conflict of interest, so to speak.
“If everything moves well, it means that bacterial cells on one side should stop turning or turning the other direction than those on the opposite side,” Hatzenpichler said.
He explained that to achieve this, “there must be a rapid social interaction at least to communicate,” okay, that it is swimming now and who is not doing that. “
However, this type of social curing between bacteria is not completely unique. Hatzenpichler said that a bacterial social signaling phenomenon called “quorum detection” has been studied for a while, and generally dictates movement or helps bacteria to discern how many of their own children are close to the subject. Bacteria that cause the disease, for example, can benefit from joining, since it makes it difficult to attack the immune system, Hatzenpichler explained.
But what is the purpose of MMB, or multicellular structures that do not precisely Multicellular? According to Hatzenpichler, scientists do not know exactly. An obvious scam is that if a cell ever live individual again, for any reason, it cannot.
“It’s good to work together, right?” Hatzenpichler said. However: “At some point it may no longer be effective staying with your friends. But if you don’t, you die.”
But cooperating together can also be advantageous if they can divide the work. And, on a much narrower scale, scientists can possibly find that what happens in the MMB consortiums could reflect the different works that the cells have in the human body.
“The heart cells do something completely different from brain cells, which are completely different from the lung, etc.,” said Hatzenpichler. More studies are needed to see if there is such a “mutual” relationship with MMB, as has been seen in the leg among other organisms that do not have a mandatory multicellular lifestyle. (Bobigate is the scientific term that means that MMB cannot survive if it separates as a single cell).
“We are not there yet, but I think here is basically where the investigation is going,” he said.
Life formation and being ‘more than the sum of the parts’
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about MMB is that he raises philosophical and scientific questions: is it multicellular or not, and what does MMB say about complicated life than bacteria?
“You could see this totality of 50 cells as an organism, so to speak, because they are individually, they die if they separate, they show unified behavior towards a common goal,” said Hatzenpichler.
“I think the same argument can be made for an animal,” he said. “Sometimes our cells fight for our general health, and other times, they don’t.”
Another conclusion of the latest MMB research is what suggests about the formation of life in general, and how life can build very complex structures from something relatively simple, said Hatzenpichler. In the future, it is possible that more research on unique organizations such as MMB can even help the discovery of life outside the earth.
“You have these emerging phenomena that leave that, where the system is more than the sum of its parts.”
Team research was published on July 11, 2024 in PLOS Biology magazine.
