Comments on: Carrying Ancient History In The Gut

By: Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:44:02 +0000

In September of this year I was subjected to a bout of Giardia infection. It was horrible. At the same time I came down with C. diff. It was determined that both were a result of something from the Maryland State Fair.

I did find some humor in it when I was finally cured. So I wrote a post for my Blog.

Thank you.

By: Your Yeasty Network | The Loom | Discover Magazine

Your Yeasty Network | The Loom | Discover Magazine — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:35:48 +0000

[...] study joins a growing list of cases in which scientists are discovering the simple history of our complicated biology. I just [...]

By: David Marjanović

David Marjanović — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:33:07 +0000

But most recent studies of the eukaryote tree find those five branches all seem to burst from the tree’s base all at once.

That’s only what it looks like on most depictions. We have next to no idea where the base is. We can’t root the tree because the closest known relative, Archaea as a whole, is so far away. Something like 5 suggestions exist in the recent literature…

By: Torbj

Torbj — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:24:10 +0000

Oops. evolutionary biologist TR Gregory of Genomicron describes "primitive".

By: Torbj

Torbj — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:22:22 +0000

Ah, this post made much more sense than the press release.

The deepest branches might be more primitive than newer ones, not having acquired the full eukaryote package of traits.

Okay, the current use of “primitive” seems fraught with danger as the “ladder” idea of species seems to prevail in public. The neutral idea should as I understand it indicate a more ancestral like organism. evolutionary biologist TR Gregory of Genomicron describes it as:

“Primitive” does not mean “less complex” or “less advanced”, it means “more like the last common ancestor of the groups being compared”.

That is perhaps equivalent with “deepest branches”.

On the other hand, and a bit confusingly referenced to, these branches may have already acquired “the full eukaryote package”. The sentence refers to a specific hypotheses among the possible ones, I think.

By: King Aardvark

King Aardvark — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:25:42 +0000

Do you know what happens if you remove one of the two nuclei? Is the organism able to survive ok or are both required for some reason?

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:48:33 +0000

Don’t talk to me about Giardia! Our new puppy came down with a dose of that within a few weeks of our getting her, then when the drugs seemed to have worked killing off that pest, she got a Campylobacter infection, and while we were treating her for that the Giardia came back. Thank goodness for pet insurance.

Dave B

PS She’s fine now, by the way…

By: inaki

inaki — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:37:25 +0000

Nice writing. The root of the eukaryotic tree is indeed a fascinating story and Giardia perfectly exemplifies the difficulties of scientist on determining it.
Congratulations on you blog!

By: David B. Benson

David B. Benson — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:40:54 +0000

The one time I contracted Gardia was when I made the mistake of drinking the water in the high Rockies. Seems that sheep graze there, unbeknownst to me.

The doctor treated me as soon a symptoms appeared. ‘Cured” it. That was in 1976.

However, I had a reoccurance about 2 years ago. The only suspect was mistakenly drinking some tap water which had sat in a plastic drinking bottle for many, many months.

I’d say those nasty little critters are highly evolved…

By: Nic Nicholson

Nic Nicholson — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:41:24 +0000

There seems to be a bad link to MicrobeWiki; it complains of a bad title…

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:12:53 +0000

There were interesting comments on Giardia in:
Christian De Duve,
Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative, 1995.

Relevant pages are listed in the index.

I have not kept current on Giardia.

By: Dez

Dez — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:59:43 +0000

Very interesting (as all your writings seem to be) but I’m puzzled by your references to difficulties in treating giardia. I’ve had it 4 or 5 times, and each time was successfully (and rapidly) treated by taking tinidazole–no need for it to ‘last for months’.