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Microbiome Swapping, It’s All the Rage Posted by Human Food Project
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pautrey23x
Aug 22, 2012, 7:27:54 AM8/22/12
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Microbiome Swapping, It’s All the Rage
Posted by Human Food Project on 21 Aug 2012 in Human Food Project | 2
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Parched, withered and feeling the burn is just another day in the life
of a U.S. farmer this summer. The unprecedented heat wave pulsing
across the Midwest Corn Belt is forecast to significantly reduce
yields, impact a variety of other grains and seeds, and even raise
prices in your local market for edible beasts. Though global warming
enthusiasts are careful not to make too much of the current heat wave,
it does add fodder to the debate and even more so for those who argue
for more genetically modified crops (GMOs) able to withstand such
droughts.
It’s unclear if the general public will ever get comfortable with the
idea of foods – plants and animals both – grown or reared from GMO
seeds, feeds, and stock. The whole idea of gene transfer and tinkering
with nature, not to mention the big multinationals that seem to
control it all, just have people freaked out about Frankenfoods. But
plant microbiologists might have a way around the problem – or at
least until we decide their new idea is a problem as well.
Messing around with a grass (Dichanthelium lanuginosum) that grows
around geothermal hot springs at Yellowstone National Park,
researchers discovered that if they sterilized the seeds before
planting (that is, removed all the associated fungi and bacteria), the
grass would no longer grow in the 160 degree Fahrenheit (~70 °C)
environment. In other words, there was something going on between the
plant and the bacteria and fungus inside and clinging to the seeds
that made it possible for this plant to live in such an extreme
environment.
That was 2002. Fast forward to 2008 and those same researchers put two
and two together and hypothesized that if they took wheat seeds, which
normally grow at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, sterilized them, and covered
them in bacteria and fungus harvested from the super weeds growing
near the geothermal springs, they would grow. Not only did the spore-
treated wheat grow at the scorching 160 degree Fahrenheit of the
geothermal springs, it also required 50 percent less water than
normal! They have also done similar eco-gymnastics with other plants
as well.
Now, you don’t need to be a plant biologist, white-coat lab technician
or one of those farmers feeling the heat to wrap your head around the
ramifications of this insight. If something as simple – well, not that
simple – as swapping seed microbiomes (all the microbes and their
genes from the seeds) could help crops weather the heat and do so with
less water, this might provide an alternative strategy to using GMO
seeds. At least those GMO variants concocted for drought resistance
(pest resistance is another matter all together).
The microbiome swapping research among plants clearly demonstrates
that microbes play an important and symbiotic relationship with the
plants. Although the exact mechanisms are still being sorted out, the
researchers note that the plants cannot do it alone.
But the idea of swapping microbiomes among various plants – that is,
the microbes and their genes – is essentially what folks concerned
with GMO foods in general are, well, concerned about; gene transfer.
Will this fact doom this creative and all-natural emerging subfield in
crop science and agronomy? I hope not.
It’s also interesting to note that throughout human evolution our
ancestors’ gut microbiomes were like huge gene vacuum cleaners,
sucking up and sampling new gene pools as we moved from nesting in the
trees to making a living on the ground. Perched high in the canopy,
our earliest ancestors consumed the microbiomes associated only with
the leaves, fruits, insects and other edibles who shared this aerial
habitat. But as we began spending more and more time on the ground –
and eventually figured out how to explore and exploit subsurface
resources like tubers – we, I should say our gut microbiome – was
exposed to a cornucopia of new bacteria and their genes. From this new
metabolic network, it was not always necessary to acquire whole
bacteria. Acquiring some of their genes was good enough as it’s the
genes, not the bacteria themselves, that is what’s most important
after all. With these news genes, we acquired the ability to more
efficiently degrade novel foods, such as the new starches and proteins
that our gut microbiome did not encounter in more elevated previous
addresses.
So as the range of our ancestors expanded with each new technology
(digging sticks, weapons, fishing nets, clothes, etc.), we continued
to experience new metabolic networks and borrowed from them what we
needed. The evidence for gene journey is discernible today in the
structural (taxonomic) and functional (genes) differences in the gut
microbiome between modern humans and our close relatives, the
chimpanzees (we share a common ancestor somewhere around 4-6 mya).
While we should demand to know what’s in our food – i.e., GMO labeling
should be mandatory – we should also bring all the biological,
environmental, social, and evolutionary evidence to the table when
discussing these important issues. Given the reality of our
evolutionary past, modern humans are best characterized as high
functioning zombies deftly controlled by thrifty, shape-shifting
microbiomes. Seems our greatest fear may have already transpired.
http://humanfoodproject.com/microbiome-swapping-its-all-the-rage/
Posted by Human Food Project on 21 Aug 2012 in Human Food Project | 2
comments
Parched, withered and feeling the burn is just another day in the life
of a U.S. farmer this summer. The unprecedented heat wave pulsing
across the Midwest Corn Belt is forecast to significantly reduce
yields, impact a variety of other grains and seeds, and even raise
prices in your local market for edible beasts. Though global warming
enthusiasts are careful not to make too much of the current heat wave,
it does add fodder to the debate and even more so for those who argue
for more genetically modified crops (GMOs) able to withstand such
droughts.
It’s unclear if the general public will ever get comfortable with the
idea of foods – plants and animals both – grown or reared from GMO
seeds, feeds, and stock. The whole idea of gene transfer and tinkering
with nature, not to mention the big multinationals that seem to
control it all, just have people freaked out about Frankenfoods. But
plant microbiologists might have a way around the problem – or at
least until we decide their new idea is a problem as well.
Messing around with a grass (Dichanthelium lanuginosum) that grows
around geothermal hot springs at Yellowstone National Park,
researchers discovered that if they sterilized the seeds before
planting (that is, removed all the associated fungi and bacteria), the
grass would no longer grow in the 160 degree Fahrenheit (~70 °C)
environment. In other words, there was something going on between the
plant and the bacteria and fungus inside and clinging to the seeds
that made it possible for this plant to live in such an extreme
environment.
That was 2002. Fast forward to 2008 and those same researchers put two
and two together and hypothesized that if they took wheat seeds, which
normally grow at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, sterilized them, and covered
them in bacteria and fungus harvested from the super weeds growing
near the geothermal springs, they would grow. Not only did the spore-
treated wheat grow at the scorching 160 degree Fahrenheit of the
geothermal springs, it also required 50 percent less water than
normal! They have also done similar eco-gymnastics with other plants
as well.
Now, you don’t need to be a plant biologist, white-coat lab technician
or one of those farmers feeling the heat to wrap your head around the
ramifications of this insight. If something as simple – well, not that
simple – as swapping seed microbiomes (all the microbes and their
genes from the seeds) could help crops weather the heat and do so with
less water, this might provide an alternative strategy to using GMO
seeds. At least those GMO variants concocted for drought resistance
(pest resistance is another matter all together).
The microbiome swapping research among plants clearly demonstrates
that microbes play an important and symbiotic relationship with the
plants. Although the exact mechanisms are still being sorted out, the
researchers note that the plants cannot do it alone.
But the idea of swapping microbiomes among various plants – that is,
the microbes and their genes – is essentially what folks concerned
with GMO foods in general are, well, concerned about; gene transfer.
Will this fact doom this creative and all-natural emerging subfield in
crop science and agronomy? I hope not.
It’s also interesting to note that throughout human evolution our
ancestors’ gut microbiomes were like huge gene vacuum cleaners,
sucking up and sampling new gene pools as we moved from nesting in the
trees to making a living on the ground. Perched high in the canopy,
our earliest ancestors consumed the microbiomes associated only with
the leaves, fruits, insects and other edibles who shared this aerial
habitat. But as we began spending more and more time on the ground –
and eventually figured out how to explore and exploit subsurface
resources like tubers – we, I should say our gut microbiome – was
exposed to a cornucopia of new bacteria and their genes. From this new
metabolic network, it was not always necessary to acquire whole
bacteria. Acquiring some of their genes was good enough as it’s the
genes, not the bacteria themselves, that is what’s most important
after all. With these news genes, we acquired the ability to more
efficiently degrade novel foods, such as the new starches and proteins
that our gut microbiome did not encounter in more elevated previous
addresses.
So as the range of our ancestors expanded with each new technology
(digging sticks, weapons, fishing nets, clothes, etc.), we continued
to experience new metabolic networks and borrowed from them what we
needed. The evidence for gene journey is discernible today in the
structural (taxonomic) and functional (genes) differences in the gut
microbiome between modern humans and our close relatives, the
chimpanzees (we share a common ancestor somewhere around 4-6 mya).
While we should demand to know what’s in our food – i.e., GMO labeling
should be mandatory – we should also bring all the biological,
environmental, social, and evolutionary evidence to the table when
discussing these important issues. Given the reality of our
evolutionary past, modern humans are best characterized as high
functioning zombies deftly controlled by thrifty, shape-shifting
microbiomes. Seems our greatest fear may have already transpired.
http://humanfoodproject.com/microbiome-swapping-its-all-the-rage/
John H. Gohde
Aug 22, 2012, 7:46:56 AM8/22/12
to
natural health, by the way.
The Microbiome relates to the human body, rather than to plants. As
of now there is no data to support anything practical about the human
Microbiome or metagenome. But, perhaps in another ten years.
I could careless about organic food, let alone GMOs. That is because
I am NOT a paranoid fool, like whoever wrote that mess of an article
obviously is.
Next time, pautrey23x, try formatting the crap that you post so that
folks can see clearly separated paragraphs. Or, is that concept
beyond your mental capabilities?
pautrey23x
Aug 24, 2012, 5:55:33 PM8/24/12
to
John H. Gohde
Aug 25, 2012, 8:04:46 AM8/25/12
to
pautrey23x
Aug 27, 2012, 1:56:13 PM8/27/12
to
You're an ignorant & mentally ill spammer that
also happens to be a cyberstalker.
Yawn !!
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