Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Who am I?

1-10% of me (depending on how you count it) was blown away by this in the New York Times: (emphasis added). No doubt, some large part of me already knew this.

"As they look beyond the genome, cancer researchers are also awakening to the fact that some 90 percent of the protein-encoding cells in our body are microbes. We evolved with them in a symbiotic relationship, which raises the question of just who is occupying whom."

“We are massively outnumbered,” said Jeremy K. Nicholson, chairman of biological chemistry and head of the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London. Altogether, he said, 99 percent of the functional genes in the body are microbial.

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So using an anti-microbial soap is somewhat suicidal?
1 reply · active 711 weeks ago
Me (Microbes, etc.) thinks so :)
and mitocondria also have a "seperate" genome
1 reply · active 711 weeks ago
Excellent point!

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