You Are Your Microbes!

Relevance:

All through Unit 5, we have been learning about how microbes affect our world.  In many examples, we learned that prokaryotes such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes a very fatal disease called Tuberculosis.  According to the bio text book, this is the world's deadliest disease.  However, microbes can also help the environment.  In one way, certain bacteria can return carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere by decomposing organic materials.  Another way, microbes can be beneficial to humans is through, Bioremediation, which essentially uses the natural abilities of certain prokaryotes to clean up toxic spills and sewage seepage.  Lastly, trees rely heavily on Mycorrhizae, which is a fungi.  This fungi lives underneath the tree and are connected to the plants roots.  Basically, it absorbs nutrients and minerals and gives some of it to the tree and the tree provides food for the fungi.  This symbiotic relationship is the culmination of evolution and allows for the tree to grow faster in order to compete with the trees around it for sunlight.


Media-File:
In our class curriculum, all we discussed were how microbes can drastically harm humans.  However, there is another side to this story.  You see, in our bodies, there are many different types of microbes that run our bodies efficiently; and if some of these microbes disappeared, we would be in a crap load of trouble! Did you know that some people have one type of microbe that another person doesn't have? Well, according to this video, that is true! For example, in our stomach, microbes help digest our  food. Cellulytic bacteria's main job in our digestive system is to help break down cellulose in our food.  You get cellulose
by eating vegetables and fruits (cell walls are made of cellulose).  Next, respirators (another type of microbe) collect
the sugars that were broken down and burn them for fuel.  Then, sugar are sent to fermenters 
(another type of microbe) which extract energy from the sugar.  The video then brings up the interesting point that 
not everyone has the same set of microbes living in their stomach.  The type of microbes found in a persons stomach
varies by the persons genetic makeup and the types of microbes that we encounter in our lives.  One very important cause of 
variation of microbes comes from what type of food we eat.  For example, if a person eats complex sugars (apple) then 
he'll need many different types of microbes in order to break it down.  On the other hand, if someone consumes mostly
simple sugars (lollipop), then the microbes that are used to break down complex sugars aren't being used and soon 
leave the body entirely.  People who are stuck in this situation usually develop diseases such as diabetes and stomach
problems for the rest of their life.  Moral of the story: Eat a balanced meal which consists of healthy choices so that the
microbes in our stomach are in harmony.  That way, we can live the good life!
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Source:
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X8p0vhsWRE
Publisher: TED Education
Published Date: January 7th, 2013