DISQUS

Think Gene: Symbiotic microbes induce profound genetic changes in their hosts

  • Steven Murphy MD · 1 year ago
    H Pylori is the tip of the iceberg. CagA is only one player in the host-bug epigenome environment.......

    -Steve
    www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com
  • Andrew Yates · 1 year ago
    H Pylori is a bacterium that lives in the stomach and can produce ulcers, but often does not. cagA is a gene of H Pylori. I'm not a doctor, but I think Steve is referring to that about 10 years ago, cagA-positive H Pylori strains were found to increase stomach cancer risk. Later, studies suggested that something about H Pylori cagA was changing the signaling in the stomach cells which was causing the increased cancer risk.

    So, bacteria that otherwise lived peacefully in the human stomach became virulent when the bacteria mutated and unbalanced some host microbial coexistence mechanism.

    NY Times article