Bonnie Bassler: The secret, social lives of bacteria

Translator: Lenka Tušar Reviewer: Tilen Pigac - EFZG

Bakterije so najstarejši živeči organizmi na Zemlji.

Bacteria are the oldest living organisms on the earth.

They've been here for billions of years,

Ti enocelični mikroskopski organizmi

and what they are are single-celled microscopic organisms.

obstajajo že miljarde let.

So they're one cell

Gre torej za enoceličarje, njihova značilnost pa je,

and they have this special property that they only have one piece of DNA.

da imajo enojen genski zapis.

So they have very few genes and genetic information

Imajo zelo malo genov,

genski zapis vsebuje vse njihove značilnosti.

to encode all of the traits that they carry out.

And the way bacteria make a living is that they consume nutrients

Bakterije se preživljajo

s hranili iz okolja,

from the environment,

they grow to twice their size,

zrastejo in se prepolovijo,

they cut themselves down in the middle,

s čimer nastaneta dve novi celici in tako dalje.

and one cell becomes two, and so on and so on.

They just grow and divide and grow and divide -- so a kind of boring life,

Stalno rastejo in se delijo -- nič posebnega --

except that what I would argue is that you have an amazing interaction

vendar pa smo s temi bitji

v izjemnem odnosu.

with these critters.

I know you guys think of yourself as humans,

Vem, da vi sebe vidite kot ljudi, jaz pa razmišljam tako.

and this is sort of how I think of you.

Ta figura predstavlja

This man is supposed to represent a generic human being,

povprečnega človeka,

and all of the circles in that man are all the cells that make up your body.

pike na njem pa predstavljajo celice, ki sestavljajo človeško telo.

There's about a trillion human cells that make each one of us who we are

Vsakega od nas sestavlja okrog bilijon človeških celic

zaradi katerih lahko živimo in delujemo,

and able to do all the things that we do.

poleg tega pa je v in na nas še 10 bilijonov bakterijskih celic

But you have 10 trillion bacterial cells in you or on you

v vsakem trenutku življenja.

at any moment in your life.

So, 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells on a human being.

Na človeškem telesu je torej

desetkrat več bakterijskih kot človeških celic.

And, of course, it's the DNA that counts,

Šteje pa seveda le zaporedje nukleotidov

so here's all the A, T, Gs and Cs that make up your genetic code

A, T, G in C,

ki sestavljajo vaš genski kod in pogojujejo vaše značilnosti.

and give you all your charming characteristics.

Imate okrog 30.000 genov.

You have about 30,000 genes.

Well, it turns out you have 100 times more bacterial genes

Bakterijskih genov imate stokrat več,

za vas pa so pomembni celo življenje.

playing a role in you or on you all of your life.

So at the best, you're 10 percent human; more likely, about one percent human,

Morda ste 10 odstotkov človek,

verjetneje pa zgolj 1 odstotek,

depending on which of these metrics you like.

odvisno kateri vidik vam je ljubši.

I know you think of yourself as human beings,

Vi se vidite kot ljudi,

jaz pa vas vidim kot skoraj izključno bakterije.

but I think of you as 90 or 99 percent bacterial.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And these bacteria are not passive riders.

Te bakterije niso pasivne,

These are incredibly important; they keep us alive.

pač pa so izjemnega pomena, saj nas ohranjajo žive.

They cover us in an invisible body armor

Okrog nas ustvarjajo neviden ščit,

that keeps environmental insults out so that we stay healthy.

ki nas brani pred škodljivimi vplivi okolja,

da ne zbolimo.

They digest our food, they make our vitamins,

Prebavljajo nam hrano, sintetizirajo vitamine,

they actually educate your immune system to keep bad microbes out.

našemu imunskemu sistemu sporočajo,

naj se ubrani slabih mikrobov.

Vse te neverjetne stvari počnejo,

So they do all these amazing things

da ostanemo živi in zdravi,

that help us and are vital for keeping us alive,

and they never get any press for that.

pa kljub temu ostajajo prezrte.

But they get a lot of press because they do a lot of terrible things as well.

Ponovno se jih pa zavemo,

ko smo zaradi njih ogroženi.

Na Zemlji je torej mnogo vrst bakterij,

So there's all kinds of bacteria on the earth

that have no business being in you or on you at any time,

ki niso v stiku s človeškim telesom,

ko pa so, lahko zaradi tega hudo zbolite.

and if they are, they make you incredibly sick.

And so the question for my lab

V našem laboratoriju se torej ukvarjamo s tem,

is whether you want to think about all the good things that bacteria do

ali so pomembnejši dobri ali slabi vplivi bakterij.

or all the bad things that bacteria do.

The question we had is: How could they do anything at all?

Zanimalo nas je predvsem, kako sploh lahko kaj naredijo?

Ker so izjemno majhne,

I mean, they're incredibly small.

You have to have a microscope to see one.

jih lahko vidimo le z mikroskopom.

They live this sort of boring life where they grow and divide,

Vse življenje le rastejo in se delijo

and they've always been considered to be these asocial, reclusive organisms.

in vedno se jih je dojemalo kot samotarske organizme.

And so it seemed to us that they're just too small

Zdelo se nam je, da so pač premajhne,

to have an impact on the environment

da bi lahko vplivale na okolje,

if they simply act as individuals.

če delujejo individualno.

So we wanted to think if there couldn't be a different way that bacteria live.

Zanimalo nas je torej, ali obstaja

drugačen način življenja bakterij.

Namig za to nam je dala morska bakterija,

And the clue to this came from another marine bacterium,

and it's a bacterium called "Vibrio fischeri."

imenovana Vibrio fischeri.

What you're looking at on this slide is just a person from my lab

Na sliki vidite pomočnika iz mojega laboratorija,

holding a flask of a liquid culture of a bacterium,

ki drži bučko tekoče bakterijske kulture,

čudovite neškodljive bakterije iz oceana,

a harmless, beautiful bacterium that comes from the ocean,

imenovane Vibrio fischeri.

named Vibrio fischeri.

And this bacterium has the special property that it makes light,

Njena posebnost je, da ustvarja svetlobo,

torej bioluminescenco,

so it makes bioluminescence,

like fireflies make light.

tako kot kresnice.

We're not doing anything to the cells here,

Tem celicam nismo dodali ničesar.

we just took the picture by turning the lights off in the room,

Fotografijo smo posneli le z ugasnjenimi lučmi

in videlo se je to.

and this is what we see.

And what's actually interesting to us was not that the bacteria made light

Za nas ni bilo presenetljivo to,

da bakterije ustvarjajo svetlobo,

but when the bacteria made light.

pač pa kdaj jo ustvarjajo.

What we noticed is when the bacteria were alone,

Ugotovili smo, da v osami

so when they were in dilute suspension,

oz. v razredčeni suspenziji do tega ne pride.

they made no light.

Ko pa se namnožijo do določenega števila celic,

But when they grew to a certain cell number,

začnejo vse bakterije hkrati oddajati svetlobo.

all the bacteria turned on light simultaneously.

So the question that we had is:

Želeli smo vedeti, kako lahko bakterije, ti preprosti organizmi,

How can bacteria, these primitive organisms,

zaznajo, kdaj so same

tell the difference from times when they're alone

in kdaj so v skupini,

and times when they're in a community,

da potem skupaj nekaj izvedejo.

and then all do something together?

Ugotovili smo, da to dosežejo z medsebojnim sporazumevanjem,

And what we figured out is that the way they do that is they talk to each other,

nekakšnim kemičnim jezikom.

and they talk with a chemical language.

Predpostavimo, da je to naša bakterijska celica.

So this is now supposed to be my bacterial cell.

Ko je sama, ne ustvarja svetlobe.

When it's alone, it doesn't make any light.

But what it does do is to make and secrete small molecules

Namesto tega proizvaja in izloča majhne molekule,

that you can think of like hormones,

ki si jih lahko predstavljate kot hormone --

and these are the red triangles.

predstavljajo jih rdeči trikotniki -- in ko je bakterija sama,

And when the bacteria are alone, the molecules just float away,

molekule le odplavajo stran in svetlobe ni.

and so, no light.

But when the bacteria grow and double

Ko pa se bakterije pomnožijo,

and they're all participating in making these molecules,

vse sodelujejo pri sproščanju takih molekul,

izvencelična količina teh molekul se torej prav tako pomnoži

the molecule, the extracellular amount of that molecule,

increases in proportion to cell number.

v sorazmerju s številom celic.

And when the molecule hits a certain amount

Ko molekula doseže količino,

that tells the bacteria how many neighbors there are,

ki sporoči bakterijam, koliko sosednjih celic je,

they recognize that molecule

skupaj prepoznajo to molekulo

and all of the bacteria turn on light in synchrony.

in skupaj ustvarijo svetlobo.

And so that's how bioluminescence works --

Tako deluje bioluminescenca --

they're talking with these chemical words.

sporazumevajo se s kemičnimi besedami.

Razlog, da Vibrio fisceri to počne, je biološki.

The reason Vibrio fischeri is doing that comes from the biology --

again, another plug for the animals in the ocean.

Tu je še eno morsko bitje --

ta ligenj je namreč njen gostitelj.

Vibrio fischeri lives in this squid.

What you're looking at is the Hawaiian bobtail squid.

Na sliki je ligenj Euprymna scolopes,

obrnjen na hrbet

It's been turned on its back,

and what I hope you can see are these two glowing lobes.

in upam, da vidite dva svetleča režnja,

These house the Vibrio fischeri cells.

v katerih živijo celice Vibro fischeri

They live in there, at high cell number.

in v velikem številu

That molecule is there, and they're making light.

ustvarjajo svetlobo.

Ligenj te vsiljivce gosti,

And the reason the squid is willing to put up with these shenanigans

ker potrebuje njihovo svetlobo.

is because it wants that light.

Živijo v sožitju,

The way that this symbiosis works

mehkužec pa živi blizu havajskih obal

is that this little squid lives just off the coast of Hawaii,

just in sort of shallow knee-deep water.

v zelo nizki vodi.

And the squid is nocturnal,

Ta ligenj je nočna žival, tekom dneva

so during the day, it buries itself in the sand and sleeps.

namreč zakopan v pesek spi,

ponoči pa pride ven na lov.

But then at night, it has to come out to hunt.

So on bright nights

Zaradi plitkosti vode, kjer ligenj živi,

when there's lots of starlight or moonlight,

zvezdna ali lunina svetloba

that light can penetrate the depth of the water the squid lives in,

zlahka prodre do morskega dna.

since it's just in those couple feet of water.

Ligenj je razvil zaslonko,

What the squid has developed is a shutter that can open and close

s katero odstira in zastira ta poseben organ, ki gosti bakterijo.

over the specialized light organ housing the bacteria.

Na hrbtu ima senzorje za določanje

And then it has detectors on its back

jakosti zvezdne ali lunine svetlobe na njem.

so it can sense how much starlight or moonlight is hitting its back.

And it opens and closes the shutter

Glede na to odpira in zapira zaslonko,

so the amount of light coming out of the bottom,

da se jakost svetlobe, ki jo bakterije

which is made by the bacterium,

sproščajo na njegovi spodnji strani,

exactly matches how much light hits the squid's back,

natanko ujema s svetlobo na hrbtu,

so the squid doesn't make a shadow.

zato pod sabo ne ustvarja sence.

So it actually uses the light from the bacteria

S svetlobo bakterij torej

to counter-illuminate itself in an antipredation device,

osvetli osenčeno površino pod sabo,

da plenilci ne zaznajo njegove sence

so predators can't see its shadow,

in ga tako tudi ne morejo upleniti.

calculate its trajectory and eat it.

Je torej nekakšen oceanski nevidni bombnik.

So this is like the stealth bomber of the ocean.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

But then if you think about it, this squid has this terrible problem,

A pravzaprav je to zanj tudi težava,

saj mu lahko ta razkrajajoča, gosta bakterijska kultura,

because it's got this dying, thick culture of bacteria,

and it can't sustain that.

ki jo nosi, tudi škodi.

And so what happens is, every morning when the sun comes up,

Zato se ligenj vsako jutro ob sončnem vzhodu

zakoplje v pesek in preko črpalke,

the squid goes back to sleep, it buries itself in the sand,

ki se odziva na njegov dnevni ritem,

and it's got a pump that's attached to its circadian rhythm.

izčrpa 95 odstotkov bakterijskih celic.

And when the sun comes up, it pumps out, like, 95 percent of the bacteria.

So now the bacteria are dilute,

Bakterije so zdaj razredčene, malih hormonskih molekul ni,

that little hormone molecule is gone, so they're not making light.

zato tudi ni svetlobe,

But, of course, the squid doesn't care, it's asleep in the sand.

kar lignja ne moti, saj spi v pesku.

Preko dneva se bakterije pomnožijo,

And as the day goes by, the bacteria double,

izločajo molekule in ponoči ustvarijo svetlobo,

they release the molecule, and then light comes on at night,

točno takrat, ko jo ligenj potrebuje.

exactly when the squid wants it.

So first, we figured out how this bacterium does this,

Najprej smo ugotovili, kako bakterija to izvede,

but then we brought the tools of molecular biology to this

nato pa smo z molekularno biologijo

to figure out, really, what's the mechanism.

prišli do spoznanja o tem mehanizmu.

And what we found -- so this is now supposed to be my bacterial cell --

Ugotovili smo -- to je torej ta bakterijska celica --

is that Vibrio fischeri has a protein.

da Vibrio fischeri vsebuje protein --

That's the red box --

to je rdeči kvader -- encim, ki ustvari

it's an enzyme that makes that little hormone molecule,

ta rdeči trikotnik, hormonsko molekulo.

the red triangle.

And then as the cells grow,

Ko celice rastejo, vse oddajajo molekulo,

they're all releasing that molecule into the environment,

s katero se napolne okolica.

so there's lots of molecule there.

Bakterije pa imajo na celični površini tudi receptor,

And the bacteria also have a receptor on their cell surface

that fits like a lock and key with that molecule.

ki se kot ključ ujema s ključavnico -- molekulo.

These are just like the receptors on the surfaces of your cells.

Taki receptorji so tudi na celičnih površinah v vašem telesu.

Ko se molekula namnoži do določene vrednosti,

So when the molecule increases to a certain amount,

which says something about the number of cells,

ki sporoča število celic,

it locks down into that receptor

se zaklene v ta receptor,

and information comes into the cells

podatki pa vstopijo v celice

in jim sporočijo, naj izvršijo

that tells the cells to turn on this collective behavior of making light.

skupinsko ustvarjanje svetlobe.

Why this is interesting is because in the past decade,

To je pomembno, ker smo v zadnjem desetletju dognali,

we have found that this is not just some anomaly

da pri tej smešni morski svetleči bakteriji

of this ridiculous, glow-in-the-dark bacterium that lives in the ocean --

ne gre le za nepravilnost,

pač pa imajo vse bakterije take sisteme.

all bacteria have systems like this.

So now what we understand is that all bacteria can talk to each other.

Zdaj je torej jasno, da imajo vse bakterije možnost sporazumevanja.

They make chemical words, they recognize those words,

Ustvarjajo kemične besede, jih prepoznavajo

and they turn on group behaviors

in se nanje skupinsko odzivajo,

that are only successful when all of the cells participate in unison.

pri čemer morajo sodelovati vse celice, da delovanje uspe.

So now we have a fancy name for this: we call it "quorum sensing."

Gre za t.i. quorum sensing (zaznavanje celične gostote oz. avtoindukcija).

They vote with these chemical votes,

Glasujejo s kemičnimi glasovi,

the vote gets counted, and then everybody responds to the vote.

jih preštejejo in nato vse nanje odgovorijo.

What's important for today's talk is we know there are hundreds of behaviors

Pomembno je, da vemo,

da bakterije na tak kolektiven način

that bacteria carry out in these collective fashions.

izvedejo na stotine različnih dejavnosti.

But the one that's probably the most important to you is virulence.

Za vas najpomembejši pa je najbrž njihova sposobnost povzročiti bolezen.

Ena ali dve bakterijski celici ob vstopu v telo

It's not like a couple bacteria get in you and start secreting some toxins --

še ne izločata toksinov --

you're enormous; that would have no effect on you, you're huge.

človeško telo je namreč ogromno, preveliko, da bi nanj imeli vpliv.

Zdaj torej vemo,

But what they do, we now understand,

is they get in you, they wait, they start growing,

da ob vstopu čakajo, se množijo,

they count themselves with these little molecules,

se preko molekul preštejejo

and they recognize when they have the right cell number

in ko dosežejo določeno število celic,

da skupaj sprožijo izbruh bolezni,

that if all of the bacteria launch their virulence attack together,

they're going to be successful at overcoming an enormous host.

bodo zmožne premagati še tako velikega gostitelja.

So bacteria always control pathogenicity with quorum sensing.

Bakterije patogenost vedno upravljajo z avtoindukcijo.

Tako to deluje.

So that's how it works.

Nato smo se vrnili tudi k molekulam,

We also then went to look at what are these molecules.

These were the red triangles on my slides before.

rdečim trikotnikom na slikah.

This is the Vibrio fischeri molecule.

To je molekula bakterije Vibrio fischeri.

This is the word that it talks with.

To je beseda, s katero se sporazumeva.

And then we started to look at other bacteria,

Začeli smo opazovati še druge bakterije

and these are just a smattering of the molecules that we've discovered.

in to je le delček odkritih molekul.

Upam, da je vidno,

What I hope you can see is that the molecules are related.

kaj imajo te molekule skupnega.

The left-hand part of the molecule is identical

Levi del molekule je identičen

in every single species of bacteria.

pri prav vsaki vrsti bakterije.

But the right-hand part of the molecule is a little bit different

Desni del molekule pa je nekoliko drugačen.

in every single species.

To v teh jezikih izraža

What that does is to confer exquisite species specificities to these languages.

posebne značilnosti vrste bakterije.

So each molecule fits into its partner receptor

Vsaka molekula spada zgolj k primernemu receptorju.

and no other.

Gre torej za zasebne, skrivne pogovore

So these are private, secret conversations.

These conversations are for intraspecies communication.

znotraj ene vrste.

Each bacteria uses a particular molecule that's its language

Vsaka bakterija z določeno molekulo ugotovi,

that allows it to count its own siblings.

koliko celic njene vrste jo obkroža.

Verjeli smo, da začenjamo razumeti

Once we got that far,

we thought we were starting to understand that bacteria have these social behaviors.

skupinsko delovanje bakterij.

Seveda pa vemo, da večino časa

But what we were really thinking about is that most of the time,

bakterije ne živijo same, pač pa v gostih mešanicah

bacteria don't live by themselves, they live in incredible mixtures,

stotin, tisočin vrst bakterij.

with hundreds or thousands of other species of bacteria.

And that's depicted on this slide.

To prikazuje ta slika. To je površina vaše kože.

This is your skin.

So this is just a picture -- a micrograph of your skin.

Gre le za sliko, približan posnetek kože.

Anywhere on your body, it looks pretty much like this.

Kjerkoli na vašem telesu gre za podoben prizor

in upam, da vidite, da gre za različne vrste bakterij.

What I hope you can see

is that there's all kinds of bacteria there.

And so we started to think, if this really is about communication in bacteria,

Pri sporazumevanju bakterij in štetju sorodnih sosed

and it's about counting your neighbors,

pa ni dovolj le sposobnost

it's not enough to be able to only talk within your species.

sporazumevanja s člani iste vrste.

Obstajati mora torej tudi način

There has to be a way to take a census

popisa ostalih bakterij v okolici.

of the rest of the bacteria in the population.

Vrnili smo se k molekularni biologiji

So we went back to molecular biology

in začeli preučevati različne vrste bakterij,

and started studying different bacteria.

pri čemer smo ugotovili,

And what we've found now is that, in fact, bacteria are multilingual.

da so bakterije pravzaprav večjezične.

Vse imajo sistem prepoznavanja lastne vrste --

They all have a species-specific system,

molekulo, ki pravi "jaz".

they have a molecule that says "me."

But then running in parallel to that is a second system

A temu vzporedno smo odkrili še

that we've discovered, that's generic.

sistem prepoznavanja različnih članov rodu.

So they have a second enzyme that makes a second signal,

Obstaja torej še drug encim, ki ustvari drugačen signal

and it has its own receptor,

za drugačen receptor --

and this molecule is the trade language of bacteria.

ta molekula je jezik sporazumevanja med različnimi bakterijami,

uporabljajo pa ga

It's used by all different bacteria,

za medvrstno sporazumevanje.

and it's the language of interspecies communication.

What happens is that bacteria are able to count

Bakterije tako lahko preštejejo člane

svoje in tuje vrste.

how many of "me" and how many of "you."

And they take that information inside,

Glede na podatek

and they decide what tasks to carry out

o večinski in manjšinski vrsti

v katerikoli populaciji se odločijo,

depending on who's in the minority and who's in the majority

of any given population.

kateri postopek naj izvedejo.

Then, again, we turned to chemistry,

Nato smo se vrnili h kemiji

and we figured out what this generic molecule is --

in ugotovili sestavo te rodovne molekule --

that was the pink ovals on my last slide, this is it.

rožnatih ovalov na zadnji sliki.

It's a very small, five-carbon molecule.

To je majhna molekula s petimi atomi ogljika.

Pomembno je,

And what the important thing is that we learned

is that every bacterium has exactly the same enzyme

da ima vsaka bakterija točno enak encim

and makes exactly the same molecule.

in ustvari točno enako molekulo.

So they're all using this molecule for interspecies communication.

Tako torej vse uporabljajo to molekulo

za medvrstno sporazumevanje.

This is the bacterial Esperanto.

To je bakterijski esperanto.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

So once we got that far,

Nato smo spoznali,

we started to learn that bacteria can talk to each other

da se bakterije sporazumevajo s tem kemičnim jezikom.

with this chemical language.

Začelo pa nas je zanimati tudi,

But we started to think

that maybe there is something practical that we can do here as well.

kako bi lahko to praktično uporabili.

Delovanje bakterij je torej skupinsko,

I've told you that bacteria have all these social behaviors,

sporazumevajo pa se preko teh molekul.

that they communicate with these molecules.

Of course, I've also told you that one of the important things they do

Pri tem je pomembno,

da se patogenost začne z zaznavanjem celične gostote.

is to initiate pathogenicity using quorum sensing.

Razmišljali smo, kako bi lahko vplivali na bakterije,

So we thought:

What if we made these bacteria so they can't talk or they can't hear?

da se ne bi mogle sporazumevati?

Bi lahko ustvarili novo vrsto antibiotikov?

Couldn't these be new kinds of antibiotics?

And of course, you've just heard and you already know

Vsi seveda že veste,

da nam zmanjkuje antibiotikov.

that we're running out of antibiotics.

Bakterije so dandanes odporne že na vrsto zdravil,

Bacteria are incredibly multi-drug-resistant right now,

and that's because all of the antibiotics that we use kill bacteria.

saj antibiotiki, kot jih poznamo, bakterijo ubijejo.

They either pop the bacterial membrane,

Učinkujejo na membrano bakterij

they make the bacterium so it can't replicate its DNA.

oz. na njihovo DNK, da se ne more podvojevati.

We kill bacteria with traditional antibiotics,

Bakterije uničujemo s tradicionalnimi antibiotiki,

and that selects for resistant mutants.

nastanejo pa odporni mutanti.

And so now, of course, we have this global problem

Velik svetovni problem so seveda

in infectious diseases.

nalezljive bolezni.

So we thought, what if we could sort of do behavior modifications,

Pomislili smo, da bi lahko posegli v delovanje bakterij,

just make these bacteria so they can't talk, they can't count,

da se ne bi mogle sporazumevati in preštevati,

kar bi zaustavilo sprožitev bolezni.

and they don't know to launch virulence?

So that's exactly what we've done,

Naredili smo točno to in sicer na dva načina.

and we've sort of taken two strategies.

Najprej je bil naš cilj

The first one is, we've targeted the intraspecies communication system.

sistem sporazumevanja znotraj ene vrste.

So we made molecules that look kind of like the real molecules, which you saw,

Ustvarili smo molekule, ki so videti kot prave --

take, kot ste jih videli -- a so nekoliko drugačne.

but they're a little bit different.

Ko se priklenejo na receptorje bakterij,

And so they lock into those receptors,

zaustavijo prepoznavanje prave molekule.

and they jam recognition of the real thing.

So by targeting the red system,

S ciljanjem na rdeči sistem lahko ustvarimo

what we are able to do is make species-specific, or disease-specific,

molekule prav za določeno vrsto bakterije ali bolezni,

a ki ne zaznavajo celične gostote.

anti-quorum-sensing molecules.

We've also done the same thing with the pink system.

Enako smo naredili z rožnatim sistemom.

We've taken that universal molecule and turned it around a little bit

Univerzalno molekulo smo spremenili tako,

so that we've made antagonists of the interspecies communication system.

da smo onemogočili tudi

medvrstni sistem sporazumevanja.

Upamo, da bodo taki antibiotiki široko uporabni

The hope is that these will be used as broad-spectrum antibiotics

that work against all bacteria.

proti vsem bakterijam.

And so to finish, I'll show you the strategy.

Za konec naj predstavim to strategijo.

In this one, I'm just using the interspecies molecule,

Tu je prikazana molekula medvrstnega sporazumevanja,

but the logic is exactly the same.

a način delovanja je isti.

So what you know is that when that bacterium gets into the animal --

Ko bakterija pride v žival,

v tem primeru v miš,

in this case, a mouse --

it doesn't initiate virulence right away.

bolezni ne sproži takoj.

It gets in, it starts growing,

Najprej začne rasti in izločati molekule,

it starts secreting its quorum-sensing molecules.

ki zaznavajo celično gostoto.

It recognizes when it has enough bacteria

Ko bakterije dosežejo zadostno število,

that now they're going to launch their attack,

sprožijo bolezen

in žival pogine.

and the animal dies.

And so what we've been able to do is to give these virulent infections,

Vnesli smo bolezenske bakterije,

but we give them in conjunction with our anti-quorum-sensing molecules.

a hkrati z molekulami, ki ne zaznavajo celične gostote --

So these are molecules that look kind of like the real thing,

molekule, ki so videti kot prave, ustrezne,

a so vseeno nekoliko drugačne, kot lahko vidite.

but they're a little different, which I've depicted on this slide.

Ugotovili smo, da če žival podvržemo

What we now know is that if we treat the animal with a pathogenic bacterium --

patogeni bakteriji, odporni na številna zdravila,

a multi-drug-resistant pathogenic bacterium --

in the same time we give our anti-quorum-sensing molecule,

in ji hkrati dodamo molekulo, ki ne zaznava celične gostote,

in fact, the animal lives.

žival preživi.

And so we think that this is the next generation of antibiotics,

Verjamemo, da je to nova generacija antibiotikov,

and it's going to get us around, at least initially,

s katerimi bomo lahko vsaj začasno

this big problem of resistance.

premagali težavo odpornosti.

What I hope you think is that bacteria can talk to each other,

Bakterije se torej lahko sporazumevajo

s kemičnimi besedami,

they use chemicals as their words,

they have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon

njihov izjemno zapleten nabor

that we're just now starting to learn about.

pa smo šele začeli spoznavati.

S tem bakterije pravzaprav

Of course, what that allows bacteria to do is to be multicellular.

postanejo večcelične.

So in the spirit of TED,

Podobno kot TED tudi bakterije

they're doing things together because it makes a difference.

za dosego sprememb stavijo na sodelovanje.

Obnašajo se kolektivno,

What happens is that bacteria have these collective behaviors,

and they can carry out tasks

s čimer izvršujejo naloge,

that they could never accomplish if they simply acted as individuals.

ki jih same ne bi

nikoli izvedle.

What I would hope that I could further argue to you

Upam, da mi bo uspelo utemeljiti,

da govorim o začetku večceličnosti.

is that this is the invention of multicellularity.

Bacteria have been on the earth for billions of years;

Bakterije so na Zemlji že milijarde let,

humans, couple hundred thousand.

ljudje pa le nekaj sto tisoč.

So we think bacteria made the rules for how multicellular organization works.

Menimo, da so bakterije postavile pravila

za delovanje večceličnih skupnosti.

S preučevanjem bakterij

And we think by studying bacteria,

we're going to be able to have insight about multicellularity in the human body.

želimo spoznati tudi večceličnost v človeškem telesu.

So we know that the principles and the rules,

Če bi nam uspelo razvozlati

if we can figure them out in these sort of primitive organisms,

načela in pravila delovanja v teh preprostih organizmih,

bi jih lahko uporabili

the hope is that they will be applied

tudi pri človeških boleznih in delovanju.

to other human diseases and human behaviors as well.

Upam, da sem pojasnila, da bakterije

I hope that what you've learned

is that bacteria can distinguish self from other.

znajo ločiti med sebi enakimi in drugačnimi.

So by using these two molecules,

S tema dvema molekulama lahko rečejo "mi" in "oni".

they can say "me" and they can say "you."

To izražamo tudi ljudje,

And again, of course, that's what we do,

tako na molekularni

both in a molecular way, and also in an outward way,

kot na beseden način,

but I think about the molecular stuff.

a sedaj je govora o molekularnem.

This is exactly what happens in your body.

Točno to se torej dogaja v vašem telesu.

It's not like your heart cells and kidney cells get all mixed up every day,

Celice vašega srca in ledvic se ne mešajo med sabo,

saj jim na kemični način

and that's because there's all of this chemistry going on,

these molecules that say who each of these groups of cells is

molekule povejo, kdo spada h kateri skupini celic

in kaj je njihova naloga.

and what their tasks should be.

So again, we think bacteria invented that,

Menimo, da so tak način iznašle bakterije.

Človeško telo je sicer razvilo nekoliko bolj zapletene celice,

and you've just evolved a few more bells and whistles,

but all of the ideas are in these simple systems that we can study.

a enak princip se vrši v teh preprostih sistemih, ki jih preučujemo.

And the final thing is, just to reiterate that there's this practical part,

V praktičnem delu smo torej razvili molekule,

and so we've made these anti-quorum-sensing molecules

ki ne zaznavajo celične gostote,

that are being developed as new kinds of therapeutics.

da bi ustvarili nova zdravila.

But then, to finish with a plug for all the good and miraculous bacteria

Da pa ne bi pozabili na vse koristne in čudovite

that live on the earth,

bakterije na Zemlji, smo razvili tudi

we've also made pro-quorum-sensing molecules.

molekule, ki zaznavajo celično gostoto.

So we've targeted those systems to make the molecules work better.

Na te sisteme smo se osredotočili, da bi tako izboljšali delovanje molekul.

Ne pozabite, da je na in v vašem telesu desetkrat več

So remember, you have these 10 times or more bacterial cells

in you or on you, keeping you healthy.

bakterijskih celic, ki vas ohranjajo zdrave.

What we're also trying to do is to beef up the conversation

Poleg tega smo želeli

izboljšati pogovore med bakterijami,

of the bacteria that live as mutualists with you,

in the hopes of making you more healthy,

ki živijo z vami v sožitju,

da bi na vaše zdravje in delovanje

making those conversations better,

so bacteria can do things that we want them to do

učinkovale bolje,

better than they would be on their own.

kot bi sicer same zase.

Finally, I wanted to show you --

Za konec vam želim še pokazati

this is my gang at Princeton, New Jersey.

mojo družbo na Princetonu v New Jerseyu.

Vse, o čemer sem vam pripovedovala, je odkrila oseba na tej sliki.

Everything I told you about was discovered by someone in that picture.

Upam, da se zavedate, da dejstva,

And I hope when you learn things, like about how the natural world works --

ki se jih učite, jih preberete v časopisu

I just want to say that whenever you read something in the newspaper

ali o njih slišite na predavanju

or you hear some talk about something ridiculous in the natural world,

o neverjetnih naravoslovnih odkritjih,

so odkrili mladi ljudje.

it was done by a child.

So science is done by that demographic.

Znanost se odvija v tej starostni skupini.

Vsi od njih so stari med dvajset in trideset let

All of those people are between 20 and 30 years old,

and they are the engine that drives scientific discovery in this country.

in predstavljajo gonilo znanstvenih odkritij v tej državi.

Krasno je sodelovati z njimi.

And it's a really lucky demographic to work with.

(Applause)

Jaz se staram, ta skupina pa je vedno enakih let,

I keep getting older and older, and they're always the same age.

zato v tem delu res izjemno uživam.

And it's just a crazy, delightful job.

And I want to thank you for inviting me here,

Najlepša hvala za vabilo.

it's a big treat for me to get to come to this conference.

Zelo sem vesela sem, da sem lahko sodelovala na tej konferenci.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)

Thanks.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)