Essay About Bacteria Use And Recent Studies

Bacteria Use in Biotechnology
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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