Bacteria Use in Biotechnology

BACTERIA USE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Bacteria. The most common thoughts after hearing this word

are germs, disease, and sickness. The common perception of

bacteria is negative, however, bacteria are not only a valuable

component of the living world, they are essential and necessary

for the survival of most living things on earth.

Bacteria serve many functions. Bacteria that live inside our

bodies help break down waste product and digest food. Recent

studies of bacteria and other microorganisms have led to a clear

understanding of the physiochemical structure of bacteria.

With the structural ledge of bacteria, scientists have been able to

create antibiotics to fight harmful bacteria. Bacteria can

mutate, however, and become immune to older antibiotics over

time. Scientists are cautiously innovating new antibiotics with the

intent of staying one step ahead of bacterial evolution. Our search

for new antibiotics will be endless because bacteria, like most

other living things, have the ability to adapt to change in order to

survive.This cycle of chase could lead to bacteria that are immune

to everything.

Recent studies have shown it might be possible to stop this

seemingly inevitable never ending cycle of antibiotics and bacterial

evolution. A protein in bacteria called MsbA is used by bacteria to

fight anti-biotics. The bacteria pumps out the MsbA proteins

which collect on the cell wall.This protein takes new phospholipids

made inside the cell, and flips them to the outside creating a

stronger cell wall.

Scientists have identified the structure of this protein, and

predict that they can "freeze" this protein in mid-action just

before it is able to flip the lipids to the outside, thus leaving the

bacteria completely unprotected from even the simplest

antibiotics. This could help make existing and future antibiotics

much more effective in treating the many serious illnesses and

many types of cancer. We could use the same techniques in

agriculture. Crops could be more plentiful if they are immunized

to bacteria that would normally kill them.

Bacteria can also be maniplulated to generate valuable by-

products. Scientists can use this approach to produce chemicals