Although most people try to stay as far away as possible from bacteria known to cause strep throat, meningitis and anthrax, university researcher Todd Treangen can’t get close enough.
Treangen, who arrived at the university in July, spent two years probing these dangerous bacteria at the Institut Pasteur in France, trying to understand how they acquire some of their unique characteristics.
By studying the protein groups in eight different bacteria species, Treangen discovered these tiny creatures copy each other’s genes to pass along to their offspring instead of duplicating their own — the method employed by other organisms, such as humans. In the process, his breakthrough research has defied what many considered scientific fact for has defied what many considered scientific fact for decades.
He said bacteria have many unique characteristics, such as antibiotic resistance and being able to adapt to extreme environments, due to special protein groups present in the bacteria.
“Proteins are the building blocks and provide a lot of functionality to these bacteria,” he said.
Treangen’s research suggests the bacteria he studied picked up an average of 95 percent of the studied protein groups through horizontal gene transfer, a process where bacteria pick up a gene from another cell while maintaining the genes already present.
In previous research, Treangen said researchers found horizontal gene transfer to be responsible for only about 20 to 40 percent of characteristics.
“This has been a trend that has built up over the last few years,” he said of gene transfer in bacteria. “This kind of follows by saying that horizontal gene transfer may have been underestimated in protein family expansion and outweighs gene duplication.”
Treangen said better understanding the evolution of bacteria could have possible implications on medical advancements.
“This can change how we view biological systems and give more importance to horizontal gene transfer that may lead to new models,” Treangen said. “Given that we have a better understanding, maybe we can develop new models and potentially understand their evolution better.”
Computer science professor Mihai Pop, who studies genomic data with Treangen at the university’s Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, said the research could lead to new models where bacteria is used as an advantage in the future.
“I think it’s a very significant result in terms of understanding how bacteria evolved,” Pop said. “Understanding how bacteria evolves new functions can help us evolve bacteria to do more useful things for us.”
But Treangen said researchers have to do more studies to determine how significant the findings really are, including whether other bacteria he didn’t study exhibit a similar high amount of horizontal gene transfer.
Although he performed the research while in France, Treangen said his findings came to light after arriving at this university, where he continues to study bacteria genomes.
He said he hasn’t ruled out a follow-up study in the future to look more closely at protein groups or possibly even move on to other organisms.
“[Bacteria] did invent the majority of the diversity of life,” Treangen said. “These bacteria microbes are important and are able to diversify very quickly, and it’s important to understand the fundamental processes they use since they’re so important to the world.”
saravia at umdbk dot com
