Chapter 807 Parasitic? Symbiosis?

"...Yesterday, the United Nations convened an interim meeting in New York to determine an emergency plan to deal with the global crisis of Martian bacteria invasion. A research team composed of researchers from various countries will be stationed on the Moon Palace space station within a week to jointly deal with the This strain is being studied."

"At the same time, according to the research decision of the International Health Organization, the bacteria was officially named X-0172 bacteria."

"Huaguo News, reporting for you."

The report on Martian bacteria ended, and the news on TV continued.

Sitting at the dining table enjoying breakfast quietly, Lu Zhou glanced at the calendar on his phone and said something to himself.

"Eighty-seven days left."

Time is running out...

Picking up the remote control to turn off the TV, Lu Zhou took out a tissue and wiped his mouth, then pushed away the chair and stood up from the dining table.

"Xiao Ai, I will trouble you to clean up the tableware."

A quadrotor drone with a small TV hanging from it wobbled over from the kitchen.

【Okay master, leave it to me! ()]

After leaving the work of washing dishes and cleaning the table to Xiao Ai, Lu Zhou took a coat from the door and put it on his body, and then called Wang Peng.

Soon a black red flag stopped outside the villa and sent him to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

In fact, strictly speaking, research in the field of biology is not the strong point of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Especially in the unpopular branch of astrobiology, not to mention the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study can't find a person who studies this direction, even if it is placed in the top five national comprehensive universities in China, it can't find many people.

However, sometimes research involving cutting-edge fields does not necessarily have to be done by professional counterparts. After all, the more cutting-edge something is, even if it is a professional counterpart, it is at most experienced, and everyone's starting line is actually similar.

At present, the Institute for Advanced Study can be called a master in the field of microbiology, and only Professor Liu Zuobing, who is in charge of the "frozen dormancy" project.

Although his main research direction is cryobiology, because he often studies cell samples collected in extreme environments, in a sense, he has more say in the X-0172 bacteria.

After all, the X-0172 bacteria were also collected from extreme environments...

After getting out of the car, Lu Zhou went straight to the building of the Institute of Biology.

When he arrived at the laboratory, Professor Liu Zuobing and several of his students were busy observing and recording in front of the electron microscope.

Without disturbing their research, Lu Zhou quietly waited for them to finish their work before he walked up to Professor Liu and asked.

"Has the sample been delivered yet?"

"It has been delivered," Professor Liu Zuobing joked, pointing to the slide specimen on the microscope, "I bet this is probably the most expensive shit in the world."

Lu Zhou also joked.

"...It is estimated to be the most dangerous in the world."

Professor Liu Zuobing smiled and waved his hands: "Then don't worry, the specimens sent to the earth have been inactivated at the highest level. As long as you strictly follow the regulations in the safety manual, basically there will be no problems."

Although he is a little sensitive to the word "basic", Lu Zhou still believes that Professor Liu's level should not make such low-level mistakes.

After a short pause, Lu Zhou asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Has the research progressed?"

"There is some progress," Professor Liu Zuobing pushed down his glasses, and continued, "According to the latest research results released by Professor Leslie and Professor Zhao Shuxuan, we can now confirm that the symptoms of lethargy in the colonists of the Ares Project , should be caused by the amino acid derivatives secreted by X-0172 bacteria when forming spores."

"Amino acid-like derivatives?" Lu Zhou frowned and continued to ask, "Is the problem serious?"

"It's not very serious. This kind of amino acid derivative is very interesting. Not only will it not harm the host, but it is even...beneficial to the host."

Lu Zhou: "...beneficial? Can you explain it to me in detail?"

"Active dormancy," a word unexpectedly thrown out by Lu Zhou, Professor Liu explained in an inferential tone, "Assuming that there used to be an atmosphere, a magnetic field, and even a rich ecosystem on Mars. When changes or other external factors make Mars less habitable, the pheromones released by the bacteria when they produce spores may help the host survive the period of scarcity, just like hibernation.”

Helping the host to survive the period of extreme weather is apparently helping the host to tide over the difficulties, but in fact it is also the bacterium's self-help. Therefore, compared with the parasitic relationship, the relationship between the bacteria and the host is more like a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.

Having said that, Professor Liu Zuobing paused for a few seconds, looked at the thoughtful Lu Zhou, and continued.

"At present, we have not found that this bacterium has other effects on the health of the host other than the symptoms of lethargy. We have reason to believe that the secretion of pheromones is an active defense mechanism of the bacterium, by reducing metabolism and active dormancy. The form helps the host to actively go dormant. In this dormant state, the host's tolerance to extreme environments will be greatly improved, and at the same time, it only needs to consume a small amount of energy to ensure the minimum life characteristics."

After thinking for a moment, Lu Zhou asked, "But what about the mechanism of releasing pheromone?"

"The problem is here. We haven't fully understood its production mechanism yet," Professor Liu Zuobing sighed. "At present, there are two speculations. One is that when the host itself develops an immune response to the foreign bacteria, the autoantibody Under the attack, the bacteria are forced to produce spores for self-preservation, and at the same time, the active dormancy pheromones are forced to be released."

"As for one possibility, under the stimulation of certain external physical conditions, the bacteria judge that the host is in an extremely harsh environment, and actively release spores and dormant pheromones to protect the host."

Although lethargy is not a fatal symptom, it is quite a headache for a normal person if he is dozing off all day long.

Among the current three colonists, one colonist has already discovered a similar situation, which means that the probability is at least one-third.

If one-third of the people on the planet doubled their daily sleep time, it's hard to say what impact it would have on modern society.

Lu Zhou pondered for a moment and asked, "Which possibility do you prefer?"

Professor Liu Zuobing: "I prefer the first one."

Lu Zhou immediately reacted: "That is to say, there may be antibodies to X-0172 bacteria in the colonist with clinical symptoms of lethargy?"

Professor Liu Zuobing nodded solemnly and said.

"It's hard to say, but I think it should be like this!"