Each human body has A complex community of trillions of microorganisms Important for health during life.
these microbial symbiont It helps digest food, helps produce essential vitamins, protects against infections, and performs many other important functions.
As a result, microorganisms that are primarily concentrated in the intestine are provided with a steady supply of food and are able to live in a relatively stable and warm environment.
But what happens to these symbiotic associates after you die?
as environmental microbiologist who studies necrobiome – Microorganisms that live in, on, and around decaying bodies – I was interested in our microbial legacy after death.
You might think that the microbes would die with you too. If your body breaks down and your microbes are shed into the environment, you cannot survive in the real world.
In a recently published study, my research team and I are sharing evidence that microbes not only continue to live after a person’s death, but they actually play an important role in human death. recycle your body So that a new life will sprout.
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Afterlife of microorganisms
When a person dies, the heart stops circulating the blood that carried oxygen throughout the body. Cells deprived of oxygen begin to digest themselves. A process called autolysis.
These intracellular enzymes, which normally digest carbohydrates, proteins, and fats for energy and growth in a controlled manner, begin acting on the membranes, proteins, DNA, and other components that make up the cell. .
The products of this cell destruction are excellent food for the commensal bacteria, and without a steady supply of food from the immune and digestive systems to keep the bacteria in check, the commensal bacteria will rely on this new source of nutrition. Masu.
intestinal bacteriaespecially a class of microorganisms called clostridium, spread throughout the organs digests you from the inside out in a process called corruption.
Without oxygen in the body, anaerobic bacteria rely on energy production processes that do not require oxygen, such as fermentation. They produce characteristic odorous gases upon decomposition.
from evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that microbes would have evolved ways to adapt to dying bodies. Like rats on a shipwreck, bacteria must eventually abandon their host and survive until they find and establish a new host.
You can increase that number by using your body’s carbon and nutrients. A large population means that at least a few individuals are more likely to survive in the harsher environment and succeed in finding new remains.
Microbial invasion
If you are buried in the ground, as your body decomposes, microbes wash into the soil along with a soup of decomposition fluids. They enter a completely new environment and encounter a completely new microbial community in the soil.
of mixed or combined Interactions between two distinct microbial communities occur frequently in nature. Union occurs when the roots of two plants grow together, when wastewater is poured into a river, or even when two people kiss.
The outcome of mixing, which communities dominate and which microorganisms become active, depends on several factors, including how much environmental change the microorganisms have experienced and who was there first.
Microorganisms are adapted to a stable, warm environment within the body and receive a steady supply of food.
In contrast, soils are particularly tough place to live – It is a highly variable environment with steep chemical and physical gradients and large fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and nutrients.
Moreover, soils already have highly diverse microbial communities full of decomposers that are well adapted to their environment and likely overwhelm newcomers.
Our latest research shows that microorganisms not only live in soil; Collaborate with the soil’s natural microorganisms To help the body break down.
In the laboratory, we have shown that mixing soil with decomposition fluid filled with host-associated microorganisms increases decomposition rates over the soil community alone.
In addition, host-associated microorganisms Enhanced nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for life, but most of the nitrogen on Earth exists as an atmospheric gas and cannot be used by living things.
Decomposers play an important role in recycling nitrogen in organic forms such as proteins Inorganic shape Ammonium, nitrate, etc. that can be used by microorganisms and plants.
Our new discovery suggests that our microbes may playing a role This recycling process converts large nitrogen-containing molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, into ammonium. Nitrifying microorganisms in the soil convert ammonium to nitrate.
next generation life
The recycling of nutrients from detritus, or inanimate organic matter, Processes at the core of every ecosystem. In terrestrial ecosystems, dead animals and carrion are decomposed, Biodiversity as fuel and it’s important food web links.
Living animals are the bottleneck for carbon and nutrient cycling in ecosystems. Throughout their lives, they slowly accumulate nutrients and carbon from large areas of the landscape, and when they die they deposit it all at once in a small local area.
One animal carcass can support an entire pop-up food web microorganisms, soil fauna and arthropod They make a living by eating carcasses. insect and animal cleaner It helps further redistribute nutrients within the ecosystem.
Decomposing microorganisms decompose concentrated pools of nutrient-rich organic molecules from our bodies. Smaller, more bioavailable form Something that other organisms can use to sustain new life.
It is not uncommon to see Plants that thrive near decomposing animalsvisible evidence that nutrients in the body are being recycled into the ecosystem.
Our own microbes play an important role in this cycle, which is one of the microscopic ways we continue to live after death.
jennifer debruynProfessor of Environmental Microbiology; University of Tennessee
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.