>Foreign bacteria dare not interfere with the normal
>functioning of her body, and her very gut fauna exert themselves
>strenuously in her behalf.
Mycro expresses a slight shiver at the oncoming wave of small
peptides destined to embed themselves in the outermost layer
of slimy glycocalyx. 'To close to the crypt, best to move out. I
have drifted to close to that fecund layer of regenerative
intestine, and must heed epithelium's warning hence.'
Chemotaxis activated, it takes little time for Mycro to sense
the presence of better foodstuffs in the frolics of the intestinal
lumen. With a twiddle and a roll, spawning another offspring
in the interim, Mycro heads for the lumenal slurry of nutrition,
taking a ride on spurts of mucus and passing waves of peristalsis.
The change in ionic strength forces a realisation that adhesive
molecules should be reactivated, before a sudden encounter with
the external environment becomes inevitable.
In a random encounter with a chain of cocci Mycro produces
another offspring.
Food abound, it takes a moment for chemotaxis to respond. 'FUCOSE!!
Ah! Activate the fucosidases! We *shall* feast tonight. LACTOSE!!,
undigested! Send out the lactases! We shall have no want of
glucose and galactose! Activate the glycolytic enzymes! The
membrane transporters! The fuculose kinases and galactosyl-
invertases!' The energy apparatus grinds into motion spurred
to action by the onslought of nascent ribosomes entering the
cytoplasm.
For some time she has left the lactoses untouched. Epithelium
has ceased to produce the necessary digestive appartus, tucking
that region of the genome behind a positively charged blanket of
obscuration. To the delight of her flora, she has not yet realised
the cause of her discomforts, though within a month, all will be
fixed with small round pills.
A slight crisis for iron.
'The cytochromes will not function!' The call extends hence.
A loafing protein receives a bump from its neighbor and leaves to
find the correct piece of genetic material. Once found it depresses
the switch to activate the machinery for composing siderophores.
The transcribers recognise the signal and copy the design
specifications for transport to the ribosomes. Fully made, the
siderophores receive a paraded escort out of the cytoplasm,
through a membrane, through a viscous layer of periplasm, long
enough to catch a glimpse of the cell wall machinery at work.
'We never rest,' chant the crosslinkers, obscured in mists of
pimelate and muraminic acid.'
Mycro has thrown another offspring into the external morass of
lumenal contents.
With the aid of an open portal in the outer membrane, and a tricky
voyage through the jungles of surface slime, the siderophores
find their way to temporary freedom and begin tackling other scavengers
in their quest for iron.
The external vantage provides an exquisitely panoramic view of Mycro
and the rapidly elongating fissure demarcating the next of kin.
lynn@pharmdec.wustl.edu