We’ve come to appreciate how beneficial our microbes are — breaking down our food, fighting off infections and nurturing our immune system. It’s a lovely, invisible garden we should be tending for our own well-being.
But in the journal Bioessays, a team of scientists has raised a creepier possibility. Perhaps our menagerie of germs is also influencing our behavior in order to advance its own evolutionary success — giving us cravings for certain foods, for example.
Maybe the microbiome is our puppet master.
I've always known that so much of our bodily functions relies on microbes, but I had never thought about how these microbes were then benefiting us. I suppose it makes sense that they also benefit from this mutualist relationship, or else they would have no reason to stick around. I'm interested in knowing more about the specifics of the relationship. Are the microbes in complete mutualistic relationship with us? That is, they give us benefits but at the same time we're feeding them for their survival, so we are both completely dependent on each other, or, are they in some ways parasitic? I ask this because the fact that the microbes are releasing neurological molecules seems very manipulative and not at all friendly to their hosts, us, as it is an "external" factor is deciding what is best for us. Or, is the relationship a little bit parasitic as well mutualistic?
ReplyDeleteSome are doing us no favors, like Salmonella, while others help digest some sugars and starches we can't, others protect us from toxins and infections, and others make vitamins for us. I suspect they cover the whole range from parasitic to mutualistic. Sometimes one subspecies is beneficial while another can be deadly as is the case with E. Coli.
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