GROUP MENTALITY, ASSOCIATION & TOGETHERNESS.

Human behaviour represented through bacterial phenomena.

This newspaper explores the idea of “togetherness”, associations and the idea of community, respresenting the concepts with biochemical phenomena and imagery. The images are accomanied with quotes surrounding the topic of grouped people and their behaviour as the behaviour of bacteria correlates stunningly.

The human group behaviour is particularly mirrored with the behaviour of bacteria related to the chronic lung infections of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The behaviours of bacteria represent how humans behave in groups, associations, communities and society today.

ASSOCIATION

A group whose members identify themselves as belonging to that unit & come together regularly & voluntarily.

In multicellular organisms, cells might have seperate jobs or tasks. In a unicellular organism, the only cell present will have to complete all tasks neccessary for survival. With multicelled organisms, it allows for certain cells to specialize in their function, and divide the labor between multiple different cell groups.

In the human body, our skin cells provide a certain task. The cells in the lining of our intestine also provide a certain function. Now, these do not provide the same function, they each have their own jobs to do. By dividing labor, multi celled organisms are able to complete more complex tasks.

To put simply, the cells on the outside may replicate and behave differently to those in the centre.

The growth of associations has been described as one of the most pervasive, diffuse and amorphous social developments of the past 200 years.

Biofilm formation in the bacterium Pseudomonas Aeruginosa with Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) expression- essentially a “spring-loaded poison dagger” which stabs and kills any other bacteria in the vicinity, ensuring that only Pseudomonas Aeruginosa may enjoy the benefits of biofilm formation. Biofilms of P. aeruginosa can cause chronic opportunistic infections, which are a serious problem for medical care in industrialized societies, especially for

immunocompromised patients and the elderly. They often cannot be treated effectively with traditional antibiotic therapy. Biofilms seem to protect these bacteria from adverse environmental factors. P. aeruginosa can cause nosocomial infections and is considered a model organism for the study of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Researchers consider it important to learn more about the molecular mechanisms that cause the switch from planktonic

growth to a biofilm phenotype and about the role of interbacterial communication in treatment-resistant bacteria such as P. aeruginosa. This should contribute to better clinical management of chronically infected patients, and should lead to the development of new drugs.

A strong sense of fellowship within any association doesn’t always mean that it’s members won’t start to discriminate against those outside their group.

Biofilm forming bacteria are non-motile (stationary) . Otherwise those not in biofilms have flagella (whip-like propellas) so can move around a lot. Our immune system tends to be able to deal with motile bacteria more easily than biofilms. Early stages of biofilm formation: several bacteria come together to form a microcolony acting as a nucleus for other bacteria to associate with, growing up into a biofilm.

“If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.”

In order for biofilms to work, a population -density-dependant regulatory system called “quorum sensing” (QS) kicks in. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that infects immunocompromised individuals and people with cystic fibrosis. A major contributor to the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa is its ability to secrete numerous virulent compounds and degradative enzymes. These factors include toxins, proteases and hemolysins.

The expression of these exoproducts does not occur until the late logarithmic phase of growth, when the cell density is high. This production occurs through a phenomenon called quorum sensing. As discussed in the introduction, quorum sensing involves the activation of specific genes at high cell densities in response to chemical signals released by P. aeruginosa. In simple terms, each bacterium secretes a small amount of a molecule, having no effect. But when lots of bacteria each all

secrete a bit of it, the overall amount of this molecule becomes very high, and so it has effects on the bacteria (e.g. making them more infectious by T6SS expression etc). This obviously cannot occur if there are only a few bacteria in the area.

Joining a team in which members can help each

other out means the enthusiasm benefits from

being in a group setting and in time can become

gigantic.

The immune system is well adapted to killing the single, motile bacterium- but can’t cope when the bacteria group together and become a biofilm.

A community needs some sort of collective identity that distinguishes it from

the rest of the world.

Biofilms are beneficial to the bacteria, as they are highly resistant to many things. Biofilms are surface-attached microbial communities. One of the best-known of these biofilm-specific properties is the development of antibiotic resistance that can be up to 1,000 times greater than planktonic cells. There is particularly high-level resistance in the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, it has been identified there is a mutant of P. aeruginosa that, while still capable of forming biofilms with the

same characteristics, does not develop high-level biofilm-specific resistance to three different classes of antibiotics. The results indicate that biofilms themselves are not simply a diffusion barrier to these antibiotics, but rather that bacteria within these microbial communities employ distinct mechanisms diffusion barrier to these antibiotics, but rather that bacteria within these microbial communities employ distinct mechanisms to resist the action of antimicrobial agents.

Together, you may become

healthier and end up with a

stronger sense of identity.

Some bacteriua in the biofilm mutate, and no longer make the QS (quorum sensing) molcules, but still benefit from the quorum sensing communication system. This is called “social cheating”. If too many bacteria in the biofilm do this, the biofilm cannot work and it breaks down. Some QS molecules are inherently toxic to other bacteria and can lead to great damage in the host.

There are signs of widespread massive destabilisation due to the loss of credibility in authority itself. The

declining image of objective standards, the reduced respect for authority leaves wide swathes of anarchy

and class polarisation.

Biofilms are detrimental to the “friendly” bacteria that live inside us, as they outcompete with them for nutrients etc. Mixed biofilms do exist, for example, if one species can use one nutrient but a second can’t, sometimes the second one can live off something which is a ‘waste’ product of the first, allowing cohabitation.

We can accept the ulitity of propaganda and such like, helps the human feel part of a group. This feeling of being part

of something induces the feeling of being sane, secure, integrated,possibly co-operative and even altruistic, all

characteristics that can be found within associations.

The biofilm community senses change in the surrounding environment to alter its behaviour. When faced with life-or-death situations, bacteria and maybe even human cells use an extremely sophisticated version of “game theory” to consider their options and decide upon the best course of action. New insights into the “chat” sessions that bacteria use to communicate among themselves information about cell stress, the colony density (quorum-sensing

peptides) and the stress status and inclinations of neighbouring cells could have far-reaching medical applications. Using this form of cell-to-cell communication, colonies of billions or trillions of bacteria can literally reach a consensus on actions that impact people.Bacteria that previously existed harmlessly on the on the skin, for instance, may exchange chemical signals and reach a consensus that their numbers are large enough to start an infection.

Likewise, bacteria may decide to band together into communities called biofilms that make numerous chronic diseases difficult to treat — urinary tract infections, for instance, cystic fibrosis and endocarditis.

We do not mind being manipulated. We often benefit from it, but equally on numerous occasions we have been quite easily led into the most preposterously dangerous behaviour.

In some instances, bacterium may decide to respond to the stressful environment in one of two ways. They may make a decision to turn themselves into “spores,” a hibernation-like existence. Alternatively, they may opt for transformation into a state called “competency.” In sporulation, bacteria dump half of their DNA into the environment and encase themselves in a thick, armor-like shell that enables the microbe to endure harsh conditions for decades on end.

Forming a spore involves more than 500 genes and can take about 10 hours to complete. When conditions improve, the spore turns into a regular bacterium again. Most bacteria, when faced with bad conditions, become spores. But a few about 1-2 percent in the wild “see” that their neighbours are becoming spores and decide to become competent. In doing so, they take up some of their neighbours’ discarded DNA in a last-ditch effort to adapt to the harsh environment

Sporulation is a drastic, traumatic process. The advantage of competency is that the cell might be able to adapt and live normally without undergoing that drastic upheaval. But competency is risky if conditions don’t improve fast enough, the competent cell could die before having a chance to become a spore. Also, the spores could decide to break out of hibernation and compete for resources.

When it comes to unacceptible and anti-social behaviour within the community whole neighbourhoods can be

socially excluded. Their conditions are then worsened by the harm inflicted by some of their in habitants.

Harriet Wood