Jessica Mark Welch 是伍兹霍尔海洋生物实验室的副研究员。这是她讲述的野外故事，由 Claire Maldarelli 整理。
细菌主宰着世界，尽管它们无处不在，并且对每一个生物生态系统的功能都至关重要，但我们对它们的了解仍然很少。理解一个庞大而多样的微生物种群如何与自身及其环境相互关联——特别是它们在所占据空间内的分布情况——将有助于我们更好地掌握影响所有生物福祉的复杂微生物网络的动态。
人类口腔是我们研究过的细菌密度最高的区域之一，因此我的同事和我刮取了 21 名志愿者的舌头上的物质，并将这些“黏液”置于显微镜载玻片上。利用人体微生物组项目的数据，我们鉴定了 17 种最常见的细菌，并为其附着了染料，当激光照射时，每种细菌都会呈现不同的颜色。
resulting image resembled a city skyline, with microbial stacks jutting outward from each tongue cell. Actinomyces and Rothia—which play a key role in turning food’s nitrate into nitric oxide that helps regulate blood pressure—showed up in just about every sample. The former stayed close to a cell’s center while the latter resided near the edge. Now we want to figure out why they are distributed this way. resulting image resembled a city skyline, with microbial stacks jutting outward from each tongue cell. Actinomyces and Rothia—which play a key role in turning food’s nitrate into nitric oxide that helps regulate blood pressure—showed up in just about every sample. The former stayed close to a cell’s center while the latter resided near the edge. Now we want to figure out why they are distributed this way.
这个故事刊登在《大众科学》 2020 年秋季“神秘”特刊中。
