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| Calling all microbes |
That introduction was made possible due to the research done by a hard working Princeton University professor and her hard working students (How Microbes Communicate In The Tiniest Language).
Today's post is a follow-up to that post which probably should have been posted way before now.
Anyway, today's follow-up to that post began as I thought about the astounding revelation that those researchers came upon, which among other things is the discovery that there is both a common language among the huge microbial world of millions of species, as well as a singular variant language between microbes of the same species (ibid).
Since Dr. Bassler also pointed out, in her TED talk video (see below), the astonishing discovery that we humans are composed mostly of microbial DNA and genes, I have done some follow-up research concerning DNA gene matches between homo sapiens and microbes (cf. The Human Microbiome Congress).
My "follow-up research" is a small study that includes only twenty microbe genomes, and three human genomes selected from a GenBank list (see Appendix).
The table in the Appendix contains three human genome excerpt lines, each followed by twenty microbe excerpt lines.
The Appendix also has a help section of seven steps about how to view the appendix data in the GenBank.
The "three human genome excerpt lines" does not mean that three people are represented, it is only one person's partial DNA (three chromosomes) which are used to compare to twenty random microbe genomes.
The purpose is to show that matches of microbe gene DNA with human gene DNA vary in quantity of matches.
That "matching" even varies within ourselves, i.e. within one individual, from time to time during our lives (A Cure For Congress & The Supreme Five: Fickle Fecal Transplants, Mitochondrion; On the origin of mitochondria: a genomics perspective).
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
At an awards proceeding: "Bonnie Bassler: Your research reminds us that transformational scientific advances occur when we challenge traditional thinking and examine old problems from new angles. As Albert Einstein said of the process of discovery, “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Your elegant logic and experimentation have led to a new understanding of the bacteria that both preserve us and place us in the greatest peril from infectious diseases. You found that bacteria are not solitary creatures, and must communicate with each other to do their work, for good or ill. Your discovery of how bacteria “talk” has far-reaching implications" (link).
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