The article stated: #------------------------------------- Excerpt: The human race may believe it is at the top of the food chain, but microbes are the food chain. #-------------------------------------
Microbes, like viruses, come in many shapes and forms. They eat differently than normal mammals. For example: #-------------------------------------- Excerpt: Viruses are just as productive, but they cannot do it alone. Viruses need the reproductive mechanisms of a living cell in order to multiply, but first the virus must get inside the cell. A cell's membrane is made out of protein molecules, and some molecules have specially shaped receptors, or landing sites, where other molecules with matching shapes can land and dock. This lock-and-key system allows the entry of only certain molecules that are necessary for normal cell function. For example, essential nutrients such as oxygen are allowed to pass through the membrane to one of many of the cell's powerhouses, the mitochondria. Nitrogen is received at different sites on the membrane and shuttled through to be used in the assembly of various proteins. But viruses have also acquired the key to specific cells. For example, the pneumonia virus is capable of latching on to a human lung cell. The virus that causes hepatitis can infect human liver cells. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS is capable of landing on white blood cells. Once a virus attaches to a host cell, it inserts its genetic material in one of three ways. Some host cells are fooled into thinking that the virus is food. These cells pull the genetic material in just as they would pull in other nutrients. Other viruses have a sticky coat that fuses with the cell's membrane, and the genetic material enters that way. Other viruses forcibly pierce the cell's membrane and inject their DNA into the host. The genetic material from the virus hijacks the reproductive machinery of the host cell and provides it with a new set of instructions to follow. The cell is now programmed to make hundreds of copies of the virus's DNA or RNA instead of its own. The virus then uses the cell's enzymes, which are molecules that control chemical changes, to build new capsids and other proteins it needs to survive. Like a genetic factory, the host cell churns out viral parts that are assembled into brand-new identical viruses. All other cell functions are shut down to conserve energy for producing as many viruses as the cell can stand. Some cells simply fall apart from exhaustion, and viruses tumble free. But other viruses actively dissolve the cell membrane to get out. Stronger cells will fill up with viruses until they burst like an overfilled water balloon. The new viruses are free to infect other host cells, a process that spreads the disease. This continues until the virus is stopped or the host dies. #----------------------- Regards, LelandJ For e that your normal mamal. Microbes come in many shape and form and eat live tissue from the ins tissue from the inside out On 01/16/2011 05:47 PM, Pete Theisen wrote: > Leland Jackson wrote: >> Your definition of "Food Chain" is very simplistic; because, it does not >> include the microscopic world of bacteria and viruses like AIDS, the >> plague, and flu. These microbe are some of the deadliest on Earth and >> over history have cause death in the hundred of thousand, millions, or >> more by feeding on humans. >> >> Even a simple cold virus will prey on us and in extreme cases cause >> death, either directly or by complicating other serious conditions. >> That is why Health Care is such a big business. >> >> http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Bacteria-and-Viruses/We-Are-Surrounded.html >>>> Viruses are at the top of the food chain on Earth. >>> Are they! You don't say! Really! >>> >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_chain > Hi Leland, > > You nut-case! You didn't even read your own link. "A virus does not eat" > your link says. How can it be at the top of the food chain on earth or > indeed anywhere if it doesn't eat? _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
