Transgenic recipe

A food I eat a lot of is sweet potato. Many people like to classify it as a so called “superfood” (no such thing) and list out its wonderful properties. I like it because it tastes great and stores well. Only last night I tucked into a nice dish of sweet potato and chick pea curry, slightly modified from the version found on this blog: https://canalcook.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/sweet-potato-spinach-and-chickpea-curry/. Try it out, it’s good.

So three posts in to a blog about microbes and you must be wondering have I lost the plot already! Not quite.

Every now and then you will see much debate over genetically modified foods or GMOs. These are also referred to as transgenic crops, a term less tarnished by detractors. The process of making a GMO involves taking a gene from one organism and putting it into another. For food crops the overall aim can be to give them a better chance of surviving disease, to increase yield or perhaps give them a uniform appearance. Much of the argument against modifying our food claims that humans should not be interfering with nature and there are fears that what we create will destroy natural ecosystems. I don’t wish to get into a debate on this right now but I thought I would just mention a paper that has recently been published in the journal PNAS (http://www.pnas.org/content/112/18/5844.full.pdf). Here comes the microbiology.

It would appear that bacteria are already creating transgenic food. While looking at the genomes of plants that produce sweet potato, the researchers of this paper discovered that genes from a bacteria species called Agrobacterium spp. were found in a large proportion of the plants they examined. These genes have been incorporated into the genome of the plant and the plant is now expressing the genes as if they were its own. In fact, of the plants that are used to produce the sweet potatoes we eat, all the ones examined were found to have genes from Agrobacterium spp. In fact, the researchers believe that the one or more of the genes could be the reason why early humans chose to selectively cultivate the particular breed still used today.

Although the transfer of genes from bacteria to bacteria and from bacteria to some other organisms is very common it is fascinating to see an example of a transgenic crop sitting on our dinner plates without us even knowing. Of course as the researchers point out in their paper, this finding could affect how unnatural we perceive transgenic crops. Enjoy your curry.

 

 

Kudos to Nicky O’Boyle for suggesting the paper.

Microbes and my weekend

This weekend I am meeting up with some friends who I have not met for a while. Over dinner I am sure we will enjoy a glass of wine or two. I like wine, whether to accompany a nice meal or while relaxing in front of the fire or watching TV. Of course I have microbes to thank for this pleasure.

Alcoholic drinks and microbes go hand in hand. Beer, wine and other such drinks are great examples of how microbes have influenced our lives. Alcoholic drinks are produced by a yeast called Saccharomyces cervesiae. The yeast uses sugars in grains or fruit to grow but in doing so produces alcohol as a waste product. This process is called fermentation and humans have been taking advantage of this natural metabolic process for a very long time. These days, companies harness fermentation to make litres and litres of beer to sell around the world but humans have been doing this for millennia (see John P. Arnolds book; ISBN 978-0-9662084-1-2).

Many people don’t realise the importance that wine has had on developing the whole field of microbiology and in doing so set in motion the discoveries of antibiotics, causative agents of infectious disease and food spoilage, biotechnology, recombinant insulin for diabetics, microbial fuel cells and so on. OK, maybe I am stretching it a bit but let me explain.

In 1856 one of the founding fathers on microbiology, Louis Pasteur, was approached by a wine maker to figure out why his wine spoiled during storage. Pasteur discovered that microorganisms were to blame and developed a method of mild heating (pasteurisation) to kill off these microbes and prevent future spoilage. With his interest piqued with these microbes, Pasteur went on to describe microbes that can grow without oxygen, microbes that cause disease in silk worms and laid a foundation for the development of proper hygiene in medicine thanks to Joseph Lister.

Of course, while I may enjoy my night out this weekend I have to be careful not to drink too much. If I do, I risk suffering the next morning. Anyone who has had a night of excess drinking will be all too familiar with the terrible hangover that comes knocking the following morning. Nausea, dizziness and headaches all lead to a rather nasty experience. While over consumption of a microbial waste product might get me drunk, recent research has shown that inebriation may not be the last time microbes play a role in my night out. Tim Spector at The Guardian wrote a nice piece on this:   

 (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/21/why-is-my-hangover-so-bad).

 It would appear that after excessive drinking, the bacteria in our gut may produce large amounts of LPS and cause inflammation which makes us feel sick (Bala et al., 2014). This may be down to a change in the population of bacteria in the gut and to help stave off this event it seems that a high fibre diet reduces the effect (Canesso et al., 2014). It is known that a high fibre diet is important in order to maintain a healthy gut, one that is rich in different bacterial species.

Perhaps this knowledge will help me choose what to eat with my glass of wine this weekend!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog on all things related to the microbial world around us.

I hope to update regularly with snippets from the world of research, and aim to promote microbiology at an easy to understand level without too much complication. Also as articles appear in popular press I will try to appraise them for accuracy and correct any false information.

For the most part the content will be random but I hope you find it interesting.

Microbiology is a fascinating area of research and deals with a world that actually isn't as "unseen" as you are led to believe. While bacteria, viruses, fungi are for the most part tiny, the impact they have on our world is enormous! From our food to our buildings, from the air we breathe down to even our mood, microbes have a profound impact on our lives. Research in microbiology is fast paced and every day brings exciting new discoveries. Hopefully I can introduce you to some of these and point you in the right direction to go and discovery the wonderful world of microbiology.

Microbes under the microscope