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【medical-news】情人节冷新闻, 科学家首次发现细菌
Posted 02.14.2011 Happy V-D!
By Rebecca Boyle
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/v-day-study-shows-human-dna-fragment-genome-common-vd-bacteria
For the first time, scientists have discovered evidence of a human DNA fragment in the genome of bacteria, shedding light on why this particular bug is so adept at surviving in human hosts. The bacteria in question is Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which causes gonorrhea.
Gonorrhea is one of very few diseases exclusive to our species, and is one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history. An ancient disease that resembles gonorrhea’s symptoms is even described in the Bible, according to Hank Seifert, senior author of a paper on the gene transfer.
The bacterium apparently picks up a genetic sequence from the host it is infecting, a novel ability that could help the bacteria adapt to its host, according to Seifert, a microbiology and immunology professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. This ability may enable it to develop different strains of itself, he said. The paper is published today in the online journal mBio.
The human genome has plenty of ghost DNA fragments, relics of viruses that entered after some past infection. Lateral gene transfer is pretty common between bacteria and multicellular organisms, according to several studies. But this is the first time that scientists have seen a bacteria pick up the genes, rather than depositing them.
“Whether this particular event has provided an advantage for the gonorrhea bacterium, we don’t know yet,” Seifert said in a NU press release.
Scientists discovered the gene transfer while they were examining the genomic sequences of several gonorrhea strains. Three of them had a piece of DNA wherein the sequence was identical to a sequence found in humans, according to NU. Further examination suggests this evolved relatively recently.
About 700,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide are infected with gonorrhea every year. It’s curable with an antibiotic, but it developed resistance to several drugs over the past 40 years. Studying the bacteria’s human DNA fragment could conceivably help scientists find better treatments.
“The next step is to figure out what this piece of DNA is doing,” Seifert said.
Source: Northwestern University
真的是情人节冷新闻,好冷~~西北大学的研究成果，还没有找到原始论文全文
Fall Ark 的评论
人由芝加哥西北大学芬堡医学院的 Hank Seifert 教授领导的研究小组发现，大约11%淋病病菌的基因组中有着人类L1基因组的片段，并且这一段基因的获取还是比较最近的事儿——淋病奈瑟菌的近亲、同为奈瑟属的脑膜炎奈瑟菌(Neisseria meningitidis)中就完全找不到人类基因的痕迹。换言之，淋病菌拥有人类基因，是一件前所未有、独一无二的事。
在过去四十年中，人类为消灭淋病制作了许多抗生素并一度取得优势，但如今被建议用来治疗淋病的药物只剩下了一种——病菌已经对其它抗生素产生了抗体。这段基因的存在，是否帮助了淋病在至少两千多年的时间中始终纠缠着人类不放呢？目前研究仍在继续进行之中，尚没有得出明确的结论。但是不管怎么说，低等生物竟然能从高等生物直觉攫取 DNA 序列，这一可能性本身就足以让我们感到惊讶了——急速进化的超级病菌、能够模拟动物与人类四肢和器官的可怕怪物、和宿主结合并产生变异的僵尸病毒/细菌，或许真的是有可能存在的？！
不仅让人感到又是兴奋，又是担忧。
REFERENCE READING
http://www.genetics.com.au/factsheet/fs26.asp
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-02-16 11:42
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