[Applause]
imagine an apocalyptic scenario for
example that from one day to another
disappear by complete layer of
ozone
what do you think would happen while
I was preparing this talk
I was looking at articles to see what
would happen in this case and there were many
possibilities but what they all had
in common is that one of the problems
principal and it will be the death of
plants
and it is that the ozone layer what it does is
filter ultraviolet light rays
that come to earth
if these rays and gas to the surface
would irreversibly damage the
plants causing his death
this would not only change level of
oxygen of the planet but it would alter
the entire food chain and
probably in a few days all
the living organisms of the earth
would die or not many bacteria would be
able to survive
and is that bacteria have developed
an incredible ability to adapt
to practically any environment there is
bacteria that are able to survive
in underwater hot springs that
reach temperatures of more than 100
degrees centigrade other bacteria
they are also able to survive
inside nuclear power plants where
they hold up to a thousand times more than
radiation that the one that could endure
any human being it might seem that
the bacteria are able to develop
ingenious solutions to these problems
but what is happening is actually
that bacteria evolving very
quickly for you to make a
idea if we have a generation
every 30 or so years
the bacteria have a generation
every 30 minutes
this means that in 30 years they will have
had about five hundred 26 thousand
generations of the millions and millions
of bacteria that are generated some of
they by chance suffer mutations or
changes in the DNA and some of those
mutations make them have an advantage
in front of the other bacteria
for example although in an environment
hostile with those we’ve seen with a lot
temperature or with a lot of radiation
these bacteria are able to do
face these problems and survive
the bacteria that have that advantage are
selected by natural selection and
they happen to give place to a new population
adapted to these conditions selection
It is also what we do in the
laboratory where I just started the
thesis in the laboratory of
biotechnology and synthetic biology
The University of Valencia
we study environments that have some
condition that makes them a bit more
extreme and there
we select bacteria that have
developed some capacity that
we can take advantage
for example the alkaloids are the
compounds that can be found
frequently contaminating soils
example where we can look for bacteria
that are capable of degrading these
alkaloids then in the intestine of
larvae that as in rich plants in
alkaloids the concrete case is this
long that is a policeman called
british crime this long stage of
feed on a plant that grows in
the saler that is called pancracio
maritime and has the peculiarity of
which is rich in alkaloids that
priori are toxic for the long term but
the long is able to protect itself in part
because in your intestine you harbor a
community of bacteria that are capable
to immobilize and degrade you
toxic alkaloids
following with the theme of alkaloids other
well-known is caffeine in the
laboratory we also wanted to look
bacteria capable of recording this layer
fine and where we look for them in the
intestine of someone who drink a lot
coffee
this would have been ideal, but
Mr. clooney did not leave us, we did not
It was funny to send the samples to
analyze so we finally opted for
study the coffee itself and not the coffee
from anywhere but the coffee that is
accumulates in the trays where the
capsules in the typical machines that
we all know that by the way
you have to wash those trays because here
bacteria grow and from among
bacteria that are able to grow
here effectively there are bacteria that
are able to degrade caffeine and
which can be used for example to
make decaffeinated coffee
changing a little bit of subject leaving
side the alkaloids
I’m going to tell you one of the projects
most recent we have had in the
laboratory and the objective of this
project was to find capable bacteria
to resist the radiation of the sun
where we look for these bacteria because in
the solar panels
what surprised us when we studied
this environment is that despite what
inhospitable that seems because he suffers from
a lot of radiation suffers from high
temperatures
It is a very nutrient – poor environment
and a community of bacteria grew very
large and very diverse
that’s the pint that has the bacteria
when the solar panels when
the crosses in the laboratory
As you can see the vast majority are from
colors
we have yellow red pepper color
tomato or orange carrot and that
similarity of colors is not coincidence is
that both bacteria and fruits
and the vegetables have the same types
of carotenoid pigments
Carotenoids serve mainly for
do two things to do
Christmas greetings
this is mine of 2015 and for
protect yourself from the sun in this
project we wanted to go one step further
to see if apart from protecting himself
these bacteria will be able to
move the protection to another
organism the first step was to select
a model body with which to work and
we select one that many people
unknown is a very simple organism
but complex enough
in order to have
organs and tissues and most importantly
of a whole model body that is
Feeds on bacteria
I’m talking about the caenorhabditis worm
elegans and the experiments will be so
simple how to feed the worm
our bacteria rich in carotenoids
radiate the ultraviolet leads and see
what happens and what we saw is that
effectively bacteria not only
they were able to protect themselves
against the sunlight but also
they were able to move that
protection
another organism like the worm in
definitively the planet is full of
bacteria that have adapted to a large
variety of extreme conditions and that
have developed capabilities that we can
take advantage and the most exciting of all
and it is what motivates us the most to follow
investigating in this is that it is estimated
than 99.9 percent of the bacteria
of the planet are not even known
you imagine everything that we have left
learn from bacteria
thank you very much
[Music]
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