The Four Kingdoms

Viruses

• Not classified as living (does not contain cells, to gain energy it takes it from the host,

• Outnumbered vs. Humans

• Host-Specfifc viruses (can infect other kingdoms)

• Tissue-specific

• “handshake” ex) HIV

• classified as an obligate Intercellular parasite.

• Lytic: Must attach, penetrate, assemble, reproduce, and get out, host cell dies.

• Lysogenic: Hides out until the host is unhealthy, and gets out.

• Antivirals/Vaccine

• Viral Chatter: preexisting virus we get exposed to, Zoonosis: transfer from animals such as the banana that the infected bat picks off, drops it in the pig’s enclosure, which is then consumed and around humans with the infected pig, which causes… emerging diseases! 🤯

Bacteria

• Can reproduce every twenty-minutes

• More good bacteria rather than bad bacteria (1% pathogenic)

• Prokaryotes (no-nucleus)

• Single-celled (unicellular)

• Missused antibiotic treatment:

Overprescribing: When antibiotics are prescribed for viral infections, such as the common cold, which are caused by viruses and cannot be treated with antibiotics.

Taking antibiotics incorrectly: Not completing the full course of antibiotics as prescribed, or taking antibiotics that were prescribed for someone else.

Using antibiotics unnecessarily: Taking antibiotics to prevent infections, when there is no infection present.

• Transformation is a process by which bacteria take up and incorporate foreign genetic material into their own genome. This process allows for the transfer of genetic information from one bacterium to another, and is a crucial mechanism for the spread of antibiotic resistance and the evolution of bacteria.

• Transduction is a process of genetic transfer in bacteria where genetic information is transferred from one bacterium to another by a bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria). During the life cycle of a bacteriophage, it can sometimes pick up a piece of the host bacterium's genetic material and transfer it to another bacterium when the phage infects it.

• Quorum sensing: is a cell-to-cell communication mechanism bacteria use to coordinate behavior on a population-wide scale. This process involves the production and detection of small signaling molecules called autoinducers. The concentration of these autoinducers is proportional to the number of bacteria present in a given area. Once a threshold concentration of autoinducers is reached, it triggers a response in the bacteria that results in a coordinated change in behavior, such as changes in gene expression, virulence, and biofilm formation. This mechanism allows bacteria to coordinate their behavior as a group, allowing them to respond effectively to environmental changes and increasing their survival. Sometimes, quorum sensing can also contribute to developing infections and diseases. Understanding quorum sensing mechanisms is essential for developing new strategies to control bacterial populations and limit their spread. (bypassing antibiotics)

Protistia

• Most diverse of the four kingdoms

• United on the basis that they are not fungi, plants, or animals

• Unicellular, colonial, and multicellular groups

• Most are microscopes, some are huge

• All symmetries

• All types of nutrition

Fungi

Is a zombie apocalypse possible?

no. 😔

1. Reanimation of dead tissue: There is no known mechanism that could reanimate dead tissue and bring a deceased organism back to life. While some parasites and viruses can affect the behavior of certain animals, there is no evidence to suggest that they could cause the dead to rise again.

2. Lack of consciousness: Even if dead tissue could be reanimated, there would be no consciousness or will driving the reanimated tissue. Zombies, as they are typically portrayed, have a level of awareness and intelligence that is not scientifically possible for reanimated dead tissue.

3. Brain function: For the sort of zombie behavior that is typically depicted in media, a functioning brain would be necessary. However, dead tissue is quickly decomposed and becomes unusable, so a functioning brain would not be possible in a reanimated zombie.

4. Infectious diseases: While infectious diseases can cause changes in behavior, there is no known virus or pathogen that can cause the sort of symptoms associated with zombies in humans at least, such as an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

5. In other instances such as several years of genetic changes over a large span of time, Earth’s temperature would still need to rise to inhabit humans’ body temperatures.

How have we gotten here?

• Antibiotic resistance bacteria

• Misuse of drugs/ overprescribing

• All present - use of antibiotics (meat, fruit, water supply, factory, aquaculture)

• 20’ rate, error-prone➡️ mutations ⬆️

• Horizontal strategies

• Toxins, CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)

How do we get out of this?

• minimize exposure

• public awareness/ “Buy In”

• policy

• incentives

• rethink diet choices and health

• advances in technology

Self 😊 vs. Non-Self 🤒 (The Immune System)

• Innate = stalling mechanism

1. Physical and chemical barriers: The skin and mucous membranes provide a physical barrier to protect the body from pathogens, while the mucous membranes also produce substances such as mucus and lysozyme to trap and destroy pathogens.

2. Inflammatory response: Upon detection of a pathogen, the innate immune system triggers an inflammatory response, which helps to recruit immune cells to the site of infection and destroy the pathogen.

3. Phagocytosis: Phagocytes, such as macrophages and neutrophils, are cells that can engulf and destroy pathogens by a process known as phagocytosis.

4. Natural killer (NK) cells: NK cells are a type of white blood cell that can recognize and kill infected cells without prior sensitization.

5. Complement system: a group of proteins that work together to enhance the innate immune response by marking pathogens for destruction by phagocytes and attracting immune cells to the site of infection.