Watch Strange, Glowing Bacteria Harpoon and Swallow DNA to Evolve

So, I find this to be really cool.

I seems that for the first time ever, scientists have recorded on video a bacterium use its pili (an appendage) to snare in and...ingest?...a stray piece of DNA to apparently help in its evolution.

In an astonishing new video, a bacterium reaches out into space, snatches a piece of DNA and stuffs that DNA into its own body. Its appendage, much longer than its own body, wanders and bends a little but seems to move with intention toward its target. And the whole act is part of the microbe's effort to evolve.

The video is the first direct observation of bacteria using appendages called pili to "harpoon" loose DNA and incorporate it into the bacteria's own genetic structures. It shows how the single-celled organisms pull off a neat trick called "horizontal gene transfer" that lets them adapt quickly to new environments. This would be a bit like if a person who's allergic to pollen needed only to reach out, snatch some loose flesh from a nonallergic friend and swallow it to get through spring without sneezing.

Does this bring a new meaning to the phrase, "You are what you eat?"

This is just really cool. They had to dye the pili in order to see it because it's less than one-ten-thousandth the width of a human hair.

Technology...wow.

LiveScience

That's really cool thanks for sharing that. I've never seen anything like that before. Makes you wonder how many new combinations pulled in by those bacteria all the time.

Ever play Spore?

whats interesting is this

It shows how the single-celled organisms pull off a neat trick called "horizontal gene transfer" that lets them adapt quickly to new environments. This would be a bit like if a person who's allergic to pollen needed only to reach out, snatch some loose flesh from a nonallergic friend and swallow it to get through spring without sneezing.

does this explain how bacteria reacts to antibiotics and then adapts to them in the long term ? just wondering.

So my crazy theories are being proven correct.

We are linked to the animal and plant kingdoms in ways not yet seen.

So is anyone gonna point out that this ability kinda puts the hold on evolutional theory.

Why evolve using some preset conditions when i could just change according to my needs and environment.

adapt and overcome

a reply to: Krakatoa

Ever play Spore?

First thing that came to my mind , life imitating art.

originally posted by: howtonhawky
So my crazy theories are being proven correct.

I don't know what crazy theory you are referencing, but horizontal gene transfer has been a known thing for a while, just never actually recorded as it was happening.

So is anyone gonna point out that this ability kinda puts the hold on evolutional theory.

I'm not going to because I don't agree with that.

Just because bacteria--must simpler, but no less interesting forms of life--can use free-floating DNA to evolve or adapt doesn't mean that the theory of evolution, with includes a multitude of ways that organisms can adapt and evolve (and includes horizontal gene transfer within the theory), is on hold any more now than it was 50 years ago.

Why evolve using some preset conditions when i could just change according to my needs and environment.

But, you can't--changing isn't always the same as evolving, and bacteria aren't the same as mammals, or amphibians, or reptiles, or viruses, or anything else that is genetically different and more complex.

And which "preset conditions" are you talking about concerning evolution?

To be fair, I'm in no way an expert on the topic, so any question that I ask or point that I make is because I honestly don't know, or I researched it and it is part of my limited scope of knowledge.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

um yea your gonna have to take it up with the science dude that made bunches of claims.

The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.Feb 26, 2018 Darwin's Theory of Evolution: Definition & Evidence - Live Science www.livescience.com...

Basically he believed that if you keep banging your head against a wall that your children would be born with protective plates in their head.

If the way that bacteria intersects with information is any clue as to how we do then perhaps the changes are not at all as darwin believed.


To put it in other words it is not wise to order fish when they are in a jet airliner

So how does the bacteria decode the foreign DNA
Does it have a bacterium interpreter for all foreign types of DNA a DNA code book or code breaking computer
A blechley Park within itself

originally posted by: howtonhawky
a reply to: SlapMonkey

um yea your gonna have to take it up with the science dude that made bunches of claims.

The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.Feb 26, 2018 Darwin's Theory of Evolution: Definition & Evidence - Live Science www.livescience.com...

Basically he believed that if you keep banging your head against a wall that your children would be born with protective plates in their head.

If the way that bacteria intersects with information is any clue as to how we do then perhaps the changes are not at all as darwin believed.


To put it in other words it is not wise to order fish when they are in a jet airliner

Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species’ almost 160 years ago. The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis that is the current understanding of evolutionary biology, has gone far beyond what Darwin postulated long ago as well as confirms predictions he made while providing better data as a result of more recent innovations such as the discovery of the double helix. Saying that evolution is wrong by misrepresenting what Darwin’s thesis actually stated (it didn’t state that bashing your head off of a wall for consecutive generations would give rise to magical protective apparatus ) with a poorly articulated strawman argument only shows that you don’t understand the science that you dislike, not that the current Theory is flawed.

To claim that because horizontal gene transfer has been recorded in real time as it was occurring somehow means that “changes were not at all as Darwin believed’ can only be considered if one chooses to willfully ignore entire fields of inquiry, such as genetics and organic chemistry for example. The template for your dismissal is a quite mine and an anachronistic one at that.

Horizontal gene transfer and epigenetics are rather well known processes to Biologists and Anthropologists. This isn’t some brand new game changer that throws the baby out with the bath water.

a reply to: peter vlar

lol

at least it is your head being banged against the wall and not mine.

of coarse i see your point but i also recognize that the theory could be stretched in any direction at this point that you could choose. how convenient for your argument

a reply to: peter vlar

The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis that is the current understanding of evolutionary biology, has gone far beyond what Darwin postulated long ago as well as confirms predictions he made while providing better data as a result of more recent innovations such as the discovery of the double helix.

do you people even think before you post?

either his theory was correct or it was not

you have totally admitted that he was wrong and that yall have now got it closer to the truth now according to your beliefs

i guess facts are beside the point

srry

LOLERS

darwin is sooo outdated

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
So, I find this to be really cool.

I seems that for the first time ever, scientists have recorded on video a bacterium use its pili (an appendage) to snare in and...ingest?...a stray piece of DNA to apparently help in its evolution.

In an astonishing new video, a bacterium reaches out into space, snatches a piece of DNA and stuffs that DNA into its own body. Its appendage, much longer than its own body, wanders and bends a little but seems to move with intention toward its target. And the whole act is part of the microbe's effort to evolve.

The video is the first direct observation of bacteria using appendages called pili to "harpoon" loose DNA and incorporate it into the bacteria's own genetic structures. It shows how the single-celled organisms pull off a neat trick called "horizontal gene transfer" that lets them adapt quickly to new environments. This would be a bit like if a person who's allergic to pollen needed only to reach out, snatch some loose flesh from a nonallergic friend and swallow it to get through spring without sneezing.

Does this bring a new meaning to the phrase, "You are what you eat?"

This is just really cool. They had to dye the pili in order to see it because it's less than one-ten-thousandth the width of a human hair.

Technology...wow.

LiveScience

The MES takes yet another hit!

Right we need a barrel of the stuff a bath tub and a willing volunteer.
Just to see what happens.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

So, I wonder if this thing is picky and choosy about what DNA it adds to its own? Did it select this piece of DNA for a specific reason?

OR, does it just take whatever it "happens to find"?

What if we were to place it in a controlled environment. Feeding it the DNA sequences we wanted it to have?

I'm not smart enough to know exactly WHY or IF I should be scared, but, that thought Does scare me a little lol...

Man is curious like a cat, he will fiddle and tamper with anything he can, even the fabric of our universe...the very fibres of our existence😐


Edit- Just clicked the link and watched the little video/gif. Very cool how the dye revealed another world of activity. Did you notice it looked like a clump of the DNA got "left behind" about maybe around halfway between "it" and the DNAs original position?

It harpooned it, and, dragging its prize back to itself, some of the DNA fell off but you can see a small amount still remains on the "harpoon". I wonder if a longer video exists, or if there is some other reason that anomaly appears? Is all that other glowing stuff "dna" too?

However, I must admit I preferred watching the scene unfold from the "non dye camera", as there are several layers of subtlety in there, the common folk would not notice, (nor would they understand even if they had), and that is something you just don't get with all that newfangled razzle dazzle on the right hand side of the screen... 😕 I can barely even see what's happening what with all the movement and flickering images. haha just kidding. Thanks for sharing bud

a reply to: peter vlar

originally posted by: peter vlar
Horizontal gene transfer and epigenetics are rather well known processes to Biologists and Anthropologists. This isn’t some brand new game changer that throws the baby out with the bath water.

Well, until now, the mechanics of natural transformation were not well known. It's been suggested that pili could play a role in uptake, but not to this extent. The bacterium in that video just displayed the intentional nature of transformation – seemingly reaching out and grabbing DNA that it needs to evolve. Previously, it was thought that transformation happened via coincidental contact with DNA fragments, and that the pili aided in uptake/diffusion at the membrane. This study shows that it literally reaches out and binds to the DNA to pull it in. It's directing its own evolution. Bacteria is. That's a game changer in my book.

Epigenetics is a game changer as well, for too many reasons to begin listing here. Suffice to say that this field of study should be, and likely will be, at the forefront of modern evolutionary theory. There's no doubt we'll soon realize that epigenetics is the predominant mechanism by which all organisms evolve. Mutations sorted by natural selection and drift will be relegated as secondary processes.

originally posted by: howtonhawky
a reply to: SlapMonkey

um yea your gonna have to take it up with the science dude that made bunches of claims.


Basically he believed that if you keep banging your head against a wall that your children would be born with protective plates in their head.

Actually, not really at all.

A better description would be that Darwin believed that if an entire species banged its head against a wall and that killed those in that species with the thinner skulls, the ones with slightly thicker skulls would be around to keep reproducing, and over time (long and short periods), that species would develop thicker skulls.

At least insofar as your example is concerned. There's more than one way to evolve, and Darwin understood that.

But then again, I'm no Darwin apologist, I just believe that, at this moment in human history, Darwinian Evolution is the closest thing that we have that explains things well enough to my satisfaction--I'm always open to scientifically derived rebuttals to that theory that are backed with empirical evidence or deductive reasoning that must be firmly encased in logic.

I haven't really come across that just yet.

If the way that bacteria intersects with information is any clue as to how we do then perhaps the changes are not at all as darwin believed.

But that's not the conclusion from watching a unicellular organism do its thing--not everything in life transfers horizontally (see what I did there?). Just because frogs can breathe through their skin doesn't mean that giraffes can; octopuses (I prefer "octopi") can transform the shape and color of their skin, but a peregrine falcon, not so much.

Just because a bacterium can consume DNA which helps it evolve to a state where it can better survive in a local environment does not mean that it is a "clue as to how we do" anything as human beings...nor any other species on earth. That's such a dismissal of logic that it's not even worth entertaining without some sort of evidence, and this is just me spitballing here, but it would seem that in the past few hundreds-of-thousands of years, the way that human beings ingest a multitude of things with DNA (by inhaling, eating, etc.) would have caused some sort of noticeable evolution of the species by now--you know, if it were as easy for us as it is for bacteria.

originally posted by: 3n19m470
a reply to: SlapMonkey

So, I wonder if this thing is picky and choosy about what DNA it adds to its own? Did it select this piece of DNA for a specific reason?

OR, does it just take whatever it "happens to find"?

Good questions. For me, it seems like it might be a survival instinct--when the environment is threatening, it seeks out something that may help it adapt to the environment and survive.

As I noted before, I'm relatively ignorant concerning the micro-details of evolving versus adapting, but this feels more like an adaptation than a true evolution, although everything that I've read on horizontal gene transfer describes it as evolution--I guess that's in the name "gene transfer."

I mean, I can adapt to local allergens if I consume local honey, but I'm certainly not evolving, right? I just wish that I understood this better, but I don't have the time to dive that deeply into it.

What if we were to place it in a controlled environment. Feeding it the DNA sequences we wanted it to have?

I'm not smart enough to know exactly WHY or IF I should be scared, but, that thought Does scare me a little lol...

Man is curious like a cat, he will fiddle and tamper with anything he can, even the fabric of our universe...the very fibres of our existence😐

Did you notice it looked like a clump of the DNA got "left behind" about maybe around halfway between "it" and the DNAs original position?

Yup...one must wonder if it broke off on its own, or if the bacterium broke off that part purposefully. So many unknowns, which is what is so cool about this.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I'm always open to scientifically derived rebuttals to that theory that are backed with empirical evidence or deductive reasoning that must be firmly encased in logic.

lol
you are confused
your bias smell like mainstream malarkey
the smartest thing darwin done was to choose a name for his delusions that would falsely highlight the truth while bssing everyone at the same time

however i agree with your op.

cool stuff