Bacterial Pathogenicity
Bacterial Pathogenicity
From the standpoint of pathogenicity islands, since there are many unknowns associated with why some bacteria of the same species cause diseases while others do not, Creation is the worldview that best explains the origin of pathogenicity. Pathogenicity islands are strips of genes within a bacteria that are considered to cause pathogenic properties of a bacteria, and are absent within the same species of bacteria that are nonpathogenic. These srtips are often very large and cannot be explained by simple mutations and adaptations. Additionally, most pathogenicity islands have DNA properties that are different from the rest of the genome and therefore have to have been placed there from somewhere outside the cells, meaning that mutation can not explain these new DNA strands. Since we can not explain the origin of these large strips of DNA changes, in order to place a causation on these pathogens, a creation viewpoint must be used to help fill in the blanks.
Modern science cannot explain how these changes occurred, so creation views these changes as a result from a single event. Only about 5-10% of currently identified bacteria are considered to be pathogenic, therefore the majority actually have a beneficial role in the environment. This helps to confirm the creation worldview that bacteria were originally created to do only good and help the environment and humans. But now a small majority of them have been changed in order to cause harm and disease. After the Fall, bacteria, along with humans, were cast out and exposed to different and new environments where they had to adapt and mutate in order to survive, thereby altering their original purpose and causing them to become cursed and potentially pathogenic.
Environmental factors play a crucial role in the mutation and changes that occur within bacteria. Bacteria adapt and change due to their environment and those impacts may subsequently cause disease within humans, but since only a small fraction of the same species actually causes pathogens, it shows that these bacteria are capable of living in these new environments without the pathogenic genome. While the evolution’s worldview can explain how the bacteria adapted to its environment and changed over time, it cannot explain why only some of the species can cause pathogens. Some examples of these bacteria with pathogenicity islands are Neisseria. Most species of Neisseria are nonpathogenic, and 93% of its genes are similar to the pathogenic strains of the bacteria. These two different strains both survive in the same environment, but only a few of them actually cause pathogens, therefore showing that these pathogenic properties are not essential for sustaining the life of the bacteria and are intended to cause disease.
References:
Gal-Mor, O., & Finlay, B.B. (2006). Pathogenicity islands: A molecular toolbox for bacterial virulence. Cellular Microbiology, 8(11), 1707-1719.
Purdom, G. (2009). The Role of Genomic Islands, Mutation, and Displacement in the Origin of Bacterial pathogenicity. Answers Research Journal 2, 133-150.
example of the reply :
Great information, I can see that you were well knowledgeable of the topic and your choice. Pathogenic islands indeed describe the strips of genes within a bacteria that are considered to cause pathogenic properties of a bacteria. They also include large genomic regions that are present on the genomes of pathogenic strains but absent from the genomes of non- pathogenic members of the same or related species. You made mention that most pathogenic islands have DNA properties, but you fail to mention that some possess RNA capabilities of gene transfer (E.Coli). In essence, the presence of direct repeats at their ends, the association of pathogenicity islands with transfer RNA genes.
You made quite a very important point stating that modern science cannot explain how the changes occur and that creation views these results as a single event. While science is the essence of our survival, researchers are the ones whom confirm the thesis through extensive laboratory researches and procedures and pose the challenges to false claims and rewrite the correct methods as necessary.
Also, you made mention that evolution cannot explain how some species causes pathogens. I have to disagree with you on this point, as I did my research and I found out quite the opposite from what you stated. You see from my research which I posted, evolution best explains the origin of pathogenicity in bacteria. by the genome evolution bacteria changed its content and genetic information stored in DNA over time. this evolution happened gradually by a mutation in genes of bacteria. Bacteria acquires pathogenic islands by horizontal gene transfer like plasmid, phage, and transposon. these pathogenic islands contribute to bacterial evolution. Thus, these pathogenicity islands are a cluster of the gene present in pathogenic bacteria, absent in non-pathogenic organism of same species.
Also, because the pathogenicity islands have been created through horizontal gene transfer, the conclusion can be drawn that the explanation is indeed in reference to the basis of evolution worldwide. For bacteria to increase their pathogenicity, exchange and transfer of genetic material among each other must occur. From this, the evolution of the pathogenic trains takes place. Hence, evolution best examine the pathogenicity of bacteria.
Thank you for that well researched information, I enjoyed every bit of it. I can tell you are very passionate about this topic. looking forward to reading more of your work.
