Bacteria - The good, the bad, the kinda gross

Captioning is on. To turn off, click the CC button at bottom right. Follow the amoebas on Twitter (@amoebasisters)and Facebook! So over our winter break, we did a little skiing and also got a little sick. Petunia got Strep throat and Pinky had to get a root canal. What do both of these have in common? Besides not being fun…both of these, were caused by bacteria. Just a disclaimer…Amoeba don’t really have teeth---or throats for that matter---but we really did get sick. Bacteria makes most people shudder. Germs is what we think of! And why wouldn’t we? Many types of bacteria can make you sick. Strep throat, caused by a little bacterium called Streptococcus, is no little bug. It can make you very sick, because like many bacteria strains that affect the body, it can produce toxins that your body has to fight off in addition to causing mayhem as it grows in your body. Oh and Pinky’s root canal? Pinky’s root canal was needed due to a cavity that got out of control. Bacteria also play a major role in tooth decay. Well we needed antibiotics. Your immune system can fight off many bacterial infections, but sometimes it needs the help of antibiotics. Antibiotics are effective against many types of bacteria. Most forms of antibiotics target the structure of prokaryote cells. Bacteria are examples of prokaryote cells as they have no nucleus or membrane bound organelles. Bacteria still have a cell membrane and genetic material like other cells, however. One thing that’s interesting though about antibiotics---if you’ve ever been on them----do you notice how they can sometimes can make you feel sick to your stomach? Or maybe you feel like your appetite is negatively affected? Here’s the thing----most broad spectrum antibiotics are not super selective. They destroy the bad bacteria---but also the good bacteria. You have tons of good bacteria in your body---did you know you even have more bacterial cells in your body than actually human cells? Bacteria are especially in your digestive system. They help you break down food. They help you synthesize certain molecules, like vitamin K. They also keep other microorganisms from getting out of control. For example---yeast---which is a fungus. A possible side effect of taking antibiotics is developing a yeast infection. Because if you kill off the bacteria, you take out the competition for the yeast. Have you ever wondered why the people on the yogurt commercials look so happy? Some foods, like yogurt, need bacteria to help produce them. The thought is that by consuming some of these foods, you might help contribute to the bacterial flora that lives in your digestive system. Bacteria are also one of the most important decomposers in food webs. Scientists do a lot of genetic research using bacteria---bacteria are cheap and quick to grow in the lab. In fact, some exciting research to look up on the web is using bacteria to help clean up oil spills. Bacteria can already do this---but the engineering part comes in when trying to figure out an effective way to do this without harming the environment at the same time. Just something to think about next time you want to call bacteria the bad little microbe.That’s it for the amoeba sisters and we remind you to stay curious!