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Biologists Discover Bacteria Communicate Like Neurons in the Brain

68 points by Oatseller 11y ago

pazimzadeh 11y ago
There's obviously no blood-brain barrier for bacteria so I wonder how they protect themselves from being affected by surrounding metabolites or hijacked by competing organisms. Here's the paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu... I'd love a copy of the pdf - my school login's not working right now.
- w1ntermute 11y ago
  Just append 'sci-hub.org' to the domain name of a journal article URL to get it for free: http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.org/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.org/nature/journal/vaop/ncurre...
  - pazimzadeh 11y ago
    Amazing, thanks.
- ChuckMcM 11y ago
  You can always tweet #icanhazpdf :-) [1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/icanhazpdf https://twitter.com/hashtag/icanhazpdf
- jack9 11y ago
  Bacteria have their own protection mechanisms. That being said, your question belies an assumption. Is it not brain-like if it's damaged/attacked? The blood-brain barrier is a structure the human brain has developed that provides a kind of protection. Things still get through and affect the human brain. So the idea of "protection" is a matter of vector, intensity, and the nature of the interaction being "protected". e.g. If a pain receptor is no longer registering due to an opiate, has the brain been disrupted?
selimthegrim 11y ago
I actually went to undergrad with the lead author - he lived right down the hall from me and was a chemical engineer. I wonder what incentivized him to switch to biology?
gfsn54nsf 11y ago
Not sure if anyone in the know is reading and wants to comment on this, but even if bacterial cells are exchanging messages, do they have connections back to other specific cells or are they just broadcasting to the local soup? If it's the latter, then it's definitely not going to function like neurons.
- florian-f 11y ago
  The latter. According to the article the 'like neurons' part just means that they use ion channels to communicate. You could argue that the title of the article is slightly misleading, but then again this is an article that talks about 'charged ions'. From the abstract of the paper (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...) "[...] ion channels conduct long-range electrical signals within bacterial biofilm communities through spatially propagating waves of potassium. These waves result from a positive feedback loop, in which a metabolic trigger induces release of intracellular potassium, which in turn depolarizes neighbouring cells. Propagating through the biofilm, this wave of depolarization coordinates metabolic states among cells in the interior and periphery of the biofilm."
henryscala 11y ago
I don't quite understand biology, but the similarities exist in objects of different scales may be another proof to show that the universe is programmed by programmer who reuses many functions.

68 points by Oatseller 11y ago

There's obviously no blood-brain barrier for bacteria so I wonder how they protect themselves from being affected by surrounding metabolites or hijacked by competing organisms. Here's the paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu... I'd love a copy of the pdf - my school login's not working right now.

w1ntermute 11y ago
Just append 'sci-hub.org' to the domain name of a journal article URL to get it for free: http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.org/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.org/nature/journal/vaop/ncurre...
- pazimzadeh 11y ago
  Amazing, thanks.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
You can always tweet #icanhazpdf :-) [1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/icanhazpdf https://twitter.com/hashtag/icanhazpdf
jack9 11y ago
Bacteria have their own protection mechanisms. That being said, your question belies an assumption. Is it not brain-like if it's damaged/attacked? The blood-brain barrier is a structure the human brain has developed that provides a kind of protection. Things still get through and affect the human brain. So the idea of "protection" is a matter of vector, intensity, and the nature of the interaction being "protected". e.g. If a pain receptor is no longer registering due to an opiate, has the brain been disrupted?

selimthegrim 11y ago

I actually went to undergrad with the lead author - he lived right down the hall from me and was a chemical engineer. I wonder what incentivized him to switch to biology?

gfsn54nsf 11y ago

Not sure if anyone in the know is reading and wants to comment on this, but even if bacterial cells are exchanging messages, do they have connections back to other specific cells or are they just broadcasting to the local soup? If it's the latter, then it's definitely not going to function like neurons.

florian-f 11y ago
The latter. According to the article the 'like neurons' part just means that they use ion channels to communicate. You could argue that the title of the article is slightly misleading, but then again this is an article that talks about 'charged ions'. From the abstract of the paper (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature15709.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...) "[...] ion channels conduct long-range electrical signals within bacterial biofilm communities through spatially propagating waves of potassium. These waves result from a positive feedback loop, in which a metabolic trigger induces release of intracellular potassium, which in turn depolarizes neighbouring cells. Propagating through the biofilm, this wave of depolarization coordinates metabolic states among cells in the interior and periphery of the biofilm."

henryscala 11y ago

I don't quite understand biology, but the similarities exist in objects of different scales may be another proof to show that the universe is programmed by programmer who reuses many functions.