By Published: Sept. 1, 2023

博彩平台推荐的一项新研究表明,细菌利用物理定律在混乱的边缘运作,利用钙来独立地多样化,并找到一个定居的地方


Let’s talk about the bacteria in our colons.

Like all life on this planet, their main goal is to replicate their genome, passing it on to the next generation. 但像结肠这样的恶劣环境迫使它们做出艰难的选择:要么在这里蹲下,要么游到更远的下游,希望能找到更绿的牧场?

Meanwhile, all their kin are making the same calculation. 每个都有相同的基因组,但不能遵循相同的说明书,否则它们都会落在同一个地方. They must diversify. 那么,一个缺乏数十亿神经元的单细胞生物是如何做到这一点的呢?

Newly published research finds that bacteria—and not just the kinds in our colons, but many types in many environments—use changes in calcium, controlled through a process called “self-organized criticality,“不需要细胞之间的交流就能自发地多样化. Bacteria use calcium not only in governing the transition to a biofilm, but in movement, maintaining cell structure and in infection.

Christian Meyer

Christian Meyer, 科罗拉多大学博尔德分子系博士后研究员, Cellular and Developmental Biology, researched how bacteria use calcium to diversify.

了解钙在细菌中是如何调节的可能对未来的研究有重要的意义, among other applications, treating harmful biofilms that can form on surfaces. Further research may help scientists interrupt a bacterium’s calcium dynamics, perhaps preventing it from settling on a surface in the first place.

“Bacteria have so much to teach us,” says Christian Meyer, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology 他和前博彩平台推荐助理教授乔尔·克拉杰一起完成了这项研究. “There’s a fallacy in assuming that because something is small, it’s simple. 细菌利用统计力学进行即时计算,而我花了整个周末在电脑上进行计算.”

Not more evolved than bacteria

In fact, Meyer’s research was inspired, in part, 人们普遍认为人类是进化的顶峰,并且认为“博彩平台推荐比________变形虫更进化”, than earthworms, than bacteria.

“That’s not at all what evolutionary theory is saying,” Meyer notes. “The theory is that you, as a human, would make a horrible worm. Each unto their own niche. 自然界中有许多系统在没有“智能”的情况下运行,我的意思是,细菌不会坐在那里,有十亿个神经元可供它们支配,来计算它们现在应该让多少钙进入体内. They have to do that rapidly and in changing environments, but also energy efficiently, and do it instantaneously—they’re not thinking.”

Originally, 迈耶和他的同事们研究了抗生素,以及它们如何改变细菌的电生理——或者包括电流和电压在内的细胞的电学特性. They showed that E. coli 当用某些抗生素治疗细菌时,细菌的反应是膜电位的变化.

In hundreds of videos of antibiotic-treated bacteria, the scientists watched calcium, as a marker of cell membrane voltage, going in and out of the cell. Instead of general randomness in that process, they saw power laws at work. 幂律描述的是事件发生的概率是其大小或持续时间的函数. For example, 地震的概率和震级之间的关系遵循幂律, with large earthquakes being less likely than small ones.

Through further research with strains of E. coli, B. subtilis and P. putida bacteria, 他们发现钙的波动是由一种被称为自组织临界性(SOC)的特性引起的,. SOC是许多自然系统的一般性质,这些系统在没有外部控制的情况下处于两相的边界. Rather than separate states of matter, the phases are defined as different dynamical regimes, 并且SOC系统通常处于有序和混沌动力学之间的边界——这被描述为“混沌边缘的有序”.”

Using self-organized criticality

Meyer和Kralj发现,SOC可以解释细菌细胞是如何在细胞外的高钙水平和大约100钙水平之间的刀口上生存的,000 times lower inside the cell.  高水平的钙具有细胞毒性,这意味着它可以破坏或杀死细胞. So, the bacteria‘s membranes operates somewhat like a dam, 快速和频繁地打开和关闭-但不是以一致的模式-将钙泵进和泵出.

Bacteria expressing calcium sensor

Bacteria expressing a fluorescent calcium sensor.

The research findings also suggest an evolutionary advantage of SOC, because it provides a way for individual bacteria to diversify, even without communicating with one another. SOC could be compared to a random number generator inside each bacteria cell, 一个基于幂律的“大事件”比其他情况下更有可能发生,” Meyer says.

“Because of this, going back to the example of bacteria in the colon, 细菌会在结肠中游得更远,而不是随意游动. 这是一种非常有效的搜索策略,在一个域中使用基于幂律的搜索. From my perspective, 我认为这是多么不可思议,他们正在使用一个物理过程来运行计算,以找出他们应该做什么, all without talking to each other or ‘thinking’.”

而了解细菌中的钙动力学是如何由有机碳引起的是重要的一步, 进一步的研究将需要研究如何在保持细菌膜电压不变的情况下靶向钙. 然后研究人员可以开始研究诸如处理有害生物膜之类的应用.

“I’ve really grown to admire what bacteria are capable of doing,” Meyer says. “想象一下,作为一个一飞升的细胞(一升的千万亿分之一),必须在博彩平台推荐生活的这个充满温度、pH值和营养变化的疯狂世界中生存. It’s a hard world, 但他们已经想出了令人难以置信的优雅解决方案来应对他们所面临的复杂挑战.

“In some ways, 我一直在思考,博彩平台推荐如何利用这些自然过程来解决人类面临的一些问题,并以一种智能的方式来解决, things bacteria figured out a long time ago. SOC系统是一个有趣的混合体,既灵活又健壮,不需要不断调整. 从人工智能到社交网络,这些似乎是许多人为系统的理想属性. 我已经开始欣赏细菌作为对抗博彩平台推荐是进化顶峰的谬论的好例子. They have amazing secrets to teach us, we just have to look at them.”

Top image: AI-generated picture of bacteria


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