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Interior to all of the little cells in our bodies\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor at least the portions of our bodies we generally refer to as our own, as opposed to the microbial hangers-on that outnumber “native” cells by a factor of 20 to one\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare little thingummies called mitochondria. Maybe you’ve heard of them, maybe you haven’t. Maybe you heard about them but you remembered them only long enough to pass the relevant cellular biology test.<\/p>\n
Regardless, you got ’em. Without ’em, you tend to limp along a bit. Without going into too much detail, they’re where we get our energy from. They hang out in our cells like little space-heaters, snarfing up oxygen and pumping out heat so that the chemistry of being alive (as we normally think of it) can happen at a rate that syncs up across all our vital functions. They also produce and store chemicals that cells use to put all the spare electrons and protons where they need to be in order to move all the little molecules around.<\/p>\n
Seriously, though, they’re their own little life forms. They have their own nuclei and cell membranes. They reproduce when the cell they reside in duplicates. And at other times, when they feel like it. Also, unlike most other microbes, they fuse<\/em> with one another.<\/p>\n Okay, so maybe mitochondria aren’t any kind of enemy. I mean, not really. Sure, they’re suspected of doing things like telling cells when it’s time to replicate or self-destruct, and perhaps handle other kinds of more complicated signaling duties, possibly involving telling stem cells how and when to differentiate…. But they’re our friends, right?<\/p>\n Sure. But the point I’m making is that they aren’t particularly us<\/em>, if you’re the sort to draw with firm, dark lines. They’re something in and of themselves. We make them, and they, in turn, make us. In specific, they make us make them. And us. Um. At some point they invaded and we never managed to kick them out. They made themselves useful. From a strictly anthropomorphic perspective. Maybe we were better off as immortal amoeba. Hard to say.<\/p>\n There are other definitely more insidious invasive organisms. E.g.,<\/em> Cordyceps<\/em><\/a> (many, many species – video!<\/a>), Toxoplasma gondii<\/em><\/a>, Dicrocoelium dendriticum<\/em><\/a>, Euhaplorchis californiensis<\/em><\/a>, Leucochloridium paradoxum<\/em><\/a> (video!<\/a>), Spinochordodes tellinii<\/em><\/a> (video!<\/a>), and a host (ahem) of others. These guys are a bit more macroscopic (if only a bit), but all of them offer some form of behavior control of modification. Frequently these behaviors endanger or kill the hosts, but it doesn’t matter to the parasite much as long as those behaviors help the parasite to spread or reproduce. Of the above short list, only Toxoplasma gondii<\/em> affects humans, but boy, does it. Studies show that is makes women more attractive to non-infected men, as well as more generous and warm-hearted\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand it makes men more neurotic and suspicious. There are hotly debated implications of links to schizophrenia and and other psychoses as well.<\/p>\n But these guys are completely external, at least in biological terms. You can get infected by ’em, and you can at least conceivably get cured.<\/p>\n And then there’s Wolbachia<\/em><\/a>. Wolbachia<\/em><\/a>, Wolbachia<\/em><\/a>, Wolbachia<\/em><\/a>. Wolbachia<\/em> species are pretty much single-handedly responsible for queen-worker-drone hive\/colony structures versus normal male-female reproductive strategies (“traditional family values”).<\/p>\n