Comments on: Why gonorrhoea is like a general sabotaging his own siege http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/08/25/why-gonorrhoea-is-like-a-general-sabotaging-his-own-siege/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:00:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: MarkD http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/08/25/why-gonorrhoea-is-like-a-general-sabotaging-his-own-siege/#comment-8949 MarkD Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:58:24 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=2448#comment-8949 This is an STD... look at the big picture. When the bacteria are affixed to the outside of the cell, wouldn't there be a huge increase in disease communicability? Also, only in the case of STDs: being ravaged by an infection usually decreases the chances of transferring the disease. Why commit to an invasion when you can have a second "homeland" if you just wait around a bit first? Waiting for more hosts without producing active symptoms is a huge advantage. This is an STD… look at the big picture.

When the bacteria are affixed to the outside of the cell, wouldn’t there be a huge increase in disease communicability? Also, only in the case of STDs: being ravaged by an infection usually decreases the chances of transferring the disease. Why commit to an invasion when you can have a second “homeland” if you just wait around a bit first?

Waiting for more hosts without producing active symptoms is a huge advantage.

]]> By: Daniel http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/08/25/why-gonorrhoea-is-like-a-general-sabotaging-his-own-siege/#comment-8948 Daniel Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:46:16 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=2448#comment-8948 Very interesting. But the article doesn't explain why the bacteria go to the trouble of causing the host cell to reinforce its defense when all they needed to do is wait a bit BEFORE they even contacted the cell and get their attack proteins ready. Why do they attach to the cell first and give their presence away? I'm also not sure about the causality here, since it could be that the host cell strengthens its defense not because the bacteria "want" it to, but because they don't know better. So, in essence, the way I understand this is that Neisseria's strategy carved out by evolution is either really smart or really dumb (anthropomorphically speaking). Very interesting. But the article doesn’t explain why the bacteria go to the trouble of causing the host cell to reinforce its defense when all they needed to do is wait a bit BEFORE they even contacted the cell and get their attack proteins ready. Why do they attach to the cell first and give their presence away? I’m also not sure about the causality here, since it could be that the host cell strengthens its defense not because the bacteria “want” it to, but because they don’t know better. So, in essence, the way I understand this is that Neisseria’s strategy carved out by evolution is either really smart or really dumb (anthropomorphically speaking).

]]> By: Rhacodactylus http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/08/25/why-gonorrhoea-is-like-a-general-sabotaging-his-own-siege/#comment-8947 Rhacodactylus Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:05:41 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=2448#comment-8947 I knew STDs were smarter than they looked. I knew STDs were smarter than they looked.

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