I know a little bit about this stuff and have an interest but you know a lot more. To be honest, what you said has been running around my mind since I first read it. Just made me really curious and I do genuinely appreciate someone who does that.
More than anything, you made me wonder why vaginal bacteria is more mobile than mouth stuff. It made me wonder what it does and why it needs to get around. And I realised I don't have the first clue.
Well, if you think about it, bacterial flora of the mouth have a free ride. Food, air, and water constantly pass through the mouth cavity. Food gets stuck between your teeth and the bacteria on the food have found a perfect little niche to start colonizing. Fun fact: Bacteria talk to each other through quorum sensing to start the biofilm formation. Also, if resources are running in short supply, programmed cell death occurs to part of the colony to save the others. Pretty cool eh? Anyways, with the mouth constantly moving and saliva swirling every which way, all the bacteria have to do is stick to something, even the throat on the way down.
Now, urogenital bacteria is a bit different, at least for the pathogens. Good ol' E. coli is a good example. You wipe back to front one day, placing E. coli from your anus to the opening of the urethra or the vagina. Now what? It needs to move to find a niche. It's not like in the mouth where it's a big party. Good bacteria are bitches to the E. coli. It needs to keep swimming through the mucosa to find a niche, preferably further up with less oxygen present. They all have their little quirks about the perfect environment for each species...and this was pretty generalized but hopefully you see the point. Another fun fact: Syphilis actually does a corkscrew motion to penetrate cells and infect. Research is still ongoing about how they do this.
Side Note: My favorite bacteria would have to be myxococcus xanthus..aka "the wolf pack." They literally move in unison and devour prey. There's a few videos of this..I used to post it in the chat haha. Anyways, bacteria are complex contrary to popular belief just because they are small.
Ah sorry I got carried away.
Haha Yup! Back in the day, I was going for pharmacy school but I took my first general microbiology course and I was hooked! I am more partial to bacteria than viruses, fungi, and archaea.
Is it normal that you'd like to thank someone here...
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I know a little bit about this stuff and have an interest but you know a lot more. To be honest, what you said has been running around my mind since I first read it. Just made me really curious and I do genuinely appreciate someone who does that.
More than anything, you made me wonder why vaginal bacteria is more mobile than mouth stuff. It made me wonder what it does and why it needs to get around. And I realised I don't have the first clue.
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lc1988
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Well, if you think about it, bacterial flora of the mouth have a free ride. Food, air, and water constantly pass through the mouth cavity. Food gets stuck between your teeth and the bacteria on the food have found a perfect little niche to start colonizing. Fun fact: Bacteria talk to each other through quorum sensing to start the biofilm formation. Also, if resources are running in short supply, programmed cell death occurs to part of the colony to save the others. Pretty cool eh? Anyways, with the mouth constantly moving and saliva swirling every which way, all the bacteria have to do is stick to something, even the throat on the way down.
Now, urogenital bacteria is a bit different, at least for the pathogens. Good ol' E. coli is a good example. You wipe back to front one day, placing E. coli from your anus to the opening of the urethra or the vagina. Now what? It needs to move to find a niche. It's not like in the mouth where it's a big party. Good bacteria are bitches to the E. coli. It needs to keep swimming through the mucosa to find a niche, preferably further up with less oxygen present. They all have their little quirks about the perfect environment for each species...and this was pretty generalized but hopefully you see the point. Another fun fact: Syphilis actually does a corkscrew motion to penetrate cells and infect. Research is still ongoing about how they do this.
Side Note: My favorite bacteria would have to be myxococcus xanthus..aka "the wolf pack." They literally move in unison and devour prey. There's a few videos of this..I used to post it in the chat haha. Anyways, bacteria are complex contrary to popular belief just because they are small.
Ah sorry I got carried away.
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Shackleford96
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You should post more posts like this, I found it fascinating :)
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lc1988
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Well, unfortunately there aren't many topics here where I can, but I try to use it whenever I can as a form of practice I guess lol.
One or two things I knew, but I also learned about ten new things in one go there. You're making me want to go off and read about bacteria all day. :P
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lc1988
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Haha Yup! Back in the day, I was going for pharmacy school but I took my first general microbiology course and I was hooked! I am more partial to bacteria than viruses, fungi, and archaea.