Bacteria Can 'Learn' And Plan Ahead

Plazma Inferno!

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According to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it.

In a paper that appeared June 17 in Nature, Prof. Yitzhak Pilpel, doctoral student Amir Mitchell and research associate Dr. Orna Dahan of the Institute's Molecular Genetics Department, together with Prof. Martin Kupiec and Gal Romano of Tel Aviv University, examined microorganisms living in environments that change in predictable ways.

Their findings show that these microorganisms' genetic networks are hard-wired to 'foresee' what comes next in the sequence of events and begin responding to the new state of affairs before its onset.

Link
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What's your opinion on 'thinking' bacteria?
 
It’s fabulous research, but I don’t find the idea that bacteria can prepare for coming events all that surprising. The article puts a very anthropomorphic spin on the research, thus giving the impression that the bacteria have ‘human-like’ abilities to anticipate and plan ahead. But isn’t this merely an example of genetic feedback loops created by environmental selective pressures? It’s an intrinsic cellular genetic mechanism from bacteria to humans.
 
Plazma Inferno! said:
According to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it.



What's your opinion on 'thinking' bacteria?
Click to expand...

Bacteria can not 'think', as in they have 'brain', but they can 'sense' its environment which enables them to 'plan ahead'.

From your link:

E. coli bacteria, for instance, which normally cruise harmlessly down the digestive tract, encounter a number of different environments on their way. In particular, they find that one type of sugar – lactose – is invariably followed by a second sugar – maltose – soon afterward. Pilpel and his team of the Molecular Genetics Department, checked the bacterium's genetic response to lactose, and found that, in addition to the genes that enable it to digest lactose, the gene network for utilizing maltose was partially activated. When they switched the order of the sugars, giving the bacteria maltose first, there was no corresponding activation of lactose genes, implying that bacteria have naturally 'learned' to get ready for a serving of maltose after a lactose appetizer.
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From that link, it is as if that E. coli can 'foresee' by 'learning from his experience' that lactose will be followed by maltose, but I think in complex biochemical reactions, the environment conditions surrounding the bacteria (such as oxygen level, temperature, pH) can be changing, and the change sometimes is gradual, giving the bacteria enough time to react (as in chemically) to adjust to its environment before the actual production of maltose fully takes place.

It's been known that some bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics, too. I guess it is not that the bacteria 'foresee' as in it learns from its experience, but more than it already react/adjust to the antibiotics condition and hence having new traits of being 'immune'.

Btw, thanx for the link, I found it very interesting!
 
In a bit detail, for example, some bacteria can switch from aerobic (oxygen respiration) to non-aerobic ('without oxygen' respiration) condition when the oxygen level of its surrounding is decreasing. In this type of environment, I think that after the bacteria senses the decrease in oxygen level, it adjust itself to the condition, so that when the actual reaction fully takes place, it looks like as if it has been 'getting ready' / can 'foresee' the coming reaction. But this is just my opinion..
 
Good news if you like bacteria. Bad news for treating bacterial infections and the like.
 
I'd like to see the actual paper, but I don't see the title or journal mentioned in the news article. It seems a little specious to say that bacteria can predict future conditions based on the fact that one metabolic pathway is partially activated by the activation of a seperate pathway.
 
inzomnia said:
Bacteria can not 'think', as in they have 'brain', but they can 'sense' its environment which enables them to 'plan ahead'.
Click to expand...

Can you tell me what sensing is, how they can do this without a brain, and also how are they able to "plan ahead" without a frontal lobe? I'm interested to know what this means for neuroscience.
 
This doesn't mean anything for neuroscience. Humans have the awful habit of applying human terms to other organisms, even single-celled ones. 'Sensing' in the bacterial sense would simply mean that they can detect concentration changes in their environment, usually through receptor proteins on the surface of the cell membrane.

In this particular study, when the bacteria detected an increase in lactose concentration, they enabled a metabolic pathway that can metabolize lactose via a signalling pathway. As a result, maltose metabolism was also partially activated. So in a basic way, the bacteria appeared to be preparing itself for an increase in maltose concentration.
 
so they aren't changing or evolving, right? They are simply doing what they have always done forever, we just now noticed. correct?
 
Hercules Rockefeller said:
It’s fabulous research, but I don’t find the idea that bacteria can prepare for coming events all that surprising. The article puts a very anthropomorphic spin on the research, thus giving the impression that the bacteria have ‘human-like’ abilities to anticipate and plan ahead. But isn’t this merely an example of genetic feedback loops created by environmental selective pressures? It’s an intrinsic cellular genetic mechanism from bacteria to humans.
Click to expand...

It seems to me so. What is amazing is that genetics are so closely linked to bacterial behavior. I doubt that human genetics can evolve so quickly to modify behavior. . . . . this is very hard to tell because most people are only likely to see 5 generations over the course of their lives.

What if every time people saw a Cross, their genetics were conditioned? :cool:
 
EmmZ said:
Can you tell me what sensing is, how they can do this without a brain, and also how are they able to "plan ahead" without a frontal lobe? I'm interested to know what this means for neuroscience.
Click to expand...

Idle Mind said:
This doesn't mean anything for neuroscience. Humans have the awful habit of applying human terms to other organisms, even single-celled ones. 'Sensing' in the bacterial sense would simply mean that they can detect concentration changes in their environment, usually through receptor proteins on the surface of the cell membrane.
Click to expand...


What Idle Mind says. Also, this article might explain it better, although there are some parts which I think vague:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618161546.htm
 
Plazma Inferno! said:
According to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it.



What's your opinion on 'thinking' bacteria?
Click to expand...

I have just realized that the article in the OP:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617131400.htm

which is published on June 18, 2009, is pretty similar to this one, which is also published in the same portal a year ago (June 19, 2008):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080618161546.htm

so, the study is actually nothing new.
 
Plazma Inferno! said:
According to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it.

What's your opinion on 'thinking' bacteria?
Click to expand...
This sounds like nothing more than evolution to me. If the pattern of available sugars is always the same, clearly bacteria that started activation of the metabolic pathway for the second sugar early would be able to outcompete it's more sluggish fellows by using up the available food before they even activated the appropriate pathways.

There is neither thinking nor anticipation of future events here. Just bacteria evolving to adjust to their environment.
 
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