Comments(7)
Countering anthropocentrismMerry Youle (11 August 2009) Writer/editor I was delighted by this excellent (open access!) commentary expressing a much needed perspective. The ideas expressed are very pertinent to all of biology, yet are all too often dismissed as trivial. Our anthropocentrism is deep, pervasive, unquestioned. The distortions in our way of seeing the rest of the planet seem to be particularly strong when it comes to microbes (including viruses). We miss so much by seeing them only in terms of their impact on our lives or their potential usefulness to us. As Aziz points out, this myopia has led to the skewed selection of genomes for sequencing, and thus the terra incognita remaining within the Tree of Life even as we approach 1,000 sequenced microbial genomes. Fortunately, biocentrism is increasing, thanks in part to the publication of articles such as this. Competing interests None Exciting article.Mariam Reyad (17 August 2009) Pharmacy student, Cairo Univ. - Egypt When I read the article for the first time, I was shocked! The article is providing a very different perspective, at least different than what I always dreamed of as a pharmacy student, to terminate harmful bacteria by designing an effective, highly selective chemotherapeutic! Competing interests None declared Thanks + AnswerRamy Karam Aziz (20 August 2009) Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University It is certainly a pleasure to see comments by a networks engineer, a science editor, and one of my undergraduate students, especially that online commenting on scientific articles is not yet as popular as commenting on blog posts. This is particularly encouraging because I was hoping that the article can reach a wide audience, not just microbiologists and ID specialists. Competing interests I am the author of this article. What is a pathogen?Xandra Smith
(05 September 2009) Danisco I agree with the author that the study of microbes should be all inclusive and not focus mainly on those that interact with humans, whether in a beneficial or harmful way. However, describing bacteria as having a pathogenic lifestyle is in itself, anthropomorphic. Many bacteria considered pathogens are not generally harmful to humans, but are in the wrong place or in the right place at the wrong time. Using your example, legionellae are not normally present in human macrophages, but in protozoa i.e. they are in the wrong place. Bacterial diarrheal disease in neonates may be caused by coliforms, which are commensal to the gastrointestinal tract, but usually only become established at later time points. Due to alterations in human behaviors; e.g. formula feeding; these bacteria are in the right place at the wrong time. Using your analogy of humans in a forest, if there are few humans and a large forest then a nomadic lifestyle will reduce negative impacts of the humans on the forest. However if the humans are prevented from moving around or increase drastically in number then the negative impacts will be far greater and the forest may not be able to recover. Competing interests None I agreeRamy Karam Aziz
(28 December 2009) Cairo University Dear Xandra, Competing interests I am the author of this article. CorrectionRamy Karam Aziz (28 December 2009) Cairo University I have been emailed by a reader about a typographical mistake. Competing interests I am the author of this article. Have something to say? Post a comment on this article! |
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Tarek Amr (08 August 2009) Salec
As you can see, I am an Engineer, and I almost know nothing about Biology and Medicine, however reading this article was really informative and it was very clear even for someone like me.
I liked the following parts the most:
"Thus, to imagine that the raison d’être of pathogenic or opportunistic bacteria is to survive by “harming” their host is simplistic, to say the least. The alternative viewpoint, which remains surprisingly uncommon in scientific literature and textbooks, is that some bacteria that had been stranded in the human body were driven to gradually evolve and adapt to such a hostile environment"
"Who attacks whom, that is the question! Indeed, the fact that we, humans, have more bacterial cells than our own cells has prompted the rhetorical question, “who parasitizes whom?”"
Competing interests
None declared
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