Allies and enemies : how the world depends on bacteria

221 Pages·2011·2.645 MB·English

by  Anne E Maczulak

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Allies and Enemies
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Allies and Enemies
How the World Depends on Bacteria
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Anne Maczulak
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without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing July 2010
ISBN-10: 0-13-701546-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-701546-7
Pearson Education LTD.
Pearson Education Australia PTY, Limited.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Maczulak, Anne E. (Anne Elizabeth), 1954-
Allies and enemies : how the world depends on bacteria / Anne E. Maczulak.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-701546-7 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-13-701546-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Bacteria—Popular works. 2. Microbial
biotechnology—Popular works. 3. Microbiology—Popular works. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Bacteria. 2. Bacterial Physiological Phenomena. 3. Bacteriology—history. QW
50 M177a 2010]
QR56.M26 2010
579.3—dc22
2010006589
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Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1 Why the world needs bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Tricks in bacterial survival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Bacterial communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Under the microscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The size of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The bacteria of the human body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The origins of our bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
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One planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter 2 Bacteria in history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The ancients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The legacy of bacterial pathogens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The plague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Microbiologists save the day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Unheralded heroes of bacteriology . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
On the front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 3 “Humans defeat germs!”(but not for long) . . . 63
What is an antibiotic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Inventing drugs is like making sausage . . . . . . . . . 68
Mutant wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Bacteria share their DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The opportunists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
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vi allies and enemies
Chapter 4 Bacteria in popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Bacteria and art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Bacteria in the performing arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Friends and enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Do bacteria devour art? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 5 An entire industry from a single cell . . . . . . . . 99
E. coli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The power of cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
A chain reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Bacteria on the street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Anthrax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Why we will always need bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter 6 The invisible universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Versatility begets diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Cyanobacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
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Bacterial protein factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
How to build an ecosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Feedback and ecosystem maintenance . . . . . . . . 138
Macrobiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Chapter 7 Climate, bacteria, and a barrel of oil . . . . . . 145
The story of oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Bacteria power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
How is a cow like a cockroach? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Microscopic power plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
The waste problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Bacteria on Mars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Shaping the planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Epilogue How microbiologists grow bacteria . . . . . . . . 165
Serial dilution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Counting bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Logarithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
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contents vii
Anaerobic microbiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Aseptic technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Appendix Resources for learning more
about bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Internet resources on bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Book resources on bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Classic reading on bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Bacteria rule references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
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Acknowledgments
I became a microbiologist in Burk A. Dehority’s laboratory in 1978
studying anaerobes in cattle, sheep, and horses. From that point on I
have met or worked with some of the most respected researchers in the
fields of anaerobic, environmental, and water microbiology. I’m sure
they have forgotten more microbiology than I ever learned, but we col-
lectively must admit that bacteria still hold a vast world of unknowns. I
thank all of my professors of microbiology at the Ohio State University
and the University of Kentucky.
For this book I owe thanks to Bonnie DeClark, Dana Johnson,
Priscilla Royal, Sheldon Siegel, Meg Stiefvater, and Janet Wallace for
their advice on chapter content. Special gratitude is due Dennis Kunkel
and Richard Danielson who always seem to offer encouragement when it
is needed the most. Thanks are due to Amanda Moran and Kirk Jensen
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for their valuable guidance, and to Jodie Rhodes for tireless encourage-
ment and support.
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About the Author
Anne Maczulak grew up in Watchung, New Jersey, with a plan to
become either a writer or a biologist. She completed undergraduate and
master’s studies in animal nutrition at The Ohio State University, her doc-
torate nutrition and microbiology from the University of Kentucky, and
conducted postdoctoral studies at the New York State Department of
Health. She also holds an MBA from Golden Gate University in San
Francisco.
Anne began her training as a microbiologist studying the bacteria
and protozoa of human and animal digestive tracts. She is one of a rela-
tively small group of microbiologists who were trained in the Hungate
method of culturing anaerobic microbes, meaning microbes that cannot
live if exposed to oxygen. In industry, Anne worked in microbiology labo-
ratories at Fortune 500 companies, developing anti-dandruff shampoos,
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deodorants, water purifiers, drain openers, septic tank cleaners, and dis-
infectants—all products that relate to the world of microbes. She con-
ducted research in the University of California-San Francisco’s
dermatology group, testing wound-healing medications, antimicrobial
soaps, and foot fungus treatments.
In graduate school, other students and a few professors had seemed
nonplussed when Anne filled her elective schedule with literature
courses. Anne was equally surprised to learn that so many of her peers in
science found pursuit of the arts to be folly. In 1992, with more than a
decade of “growing bugs” on her resume, she packed up and drove from
the east coast to California to begin a new career as a writer while keep-
ing microbiology her day job. And yes, it was possible to be both a writer
and a scientist.
While toiling evenings on a mystery novel set in a microbiology lab,
Anne continued working on various laboratory projects intended either
to utilize good microbes or eliminate deadly ones. A decade later, Anne
began her career as an independent consultant and has successfully
blended writing with biology. Although the mystery novel never made it
off the ground, Anne has since published ten books on microbes and
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