Where to start, bacteria? Or plague?
In this post, I hope to focus mostly on the insidious bio-agent, Yersinia Pestis aka, Y. pestis, bringer of plagues. I stray but I come back (you’ll know by my tone).
Pathogen infection blocks flea’s esophagus. Unable to feed, it jumps from animal to animal in attempt to get nourishment. During this process it regurgitates infection into each bite wound until it dies of starvation.
Plague derives from the Greek, plēgē, meaning a blow or stroke. Latin plungere, meaning to beat or strike and also to bewail or lament.
I want to indicate idea of pandemic in some way. I mention to Dr. Sandra Reuter, I am considering collaging a world map into my study of Y. pestis.
She responds: I like the idea of the world map and spreading of disease. That is very much what I am interested in now, and it does also apply to the plague, as it has travelled the world several times, too! Especially in the middle ages, it spread along the trade routes. Even today, it survives in some places like Madagascar, China, Russia, and even in remote parts of the US.
Some bugs are like that, they like to travel and make use of how people move. Compared to the middle ages, the spread nowadays is much quicker, though, because of air travel! That’s why this corona virus pandemic has hit the whole world within a couple of months, whereas the plague travelled much slower, and the big pandemic of the Black Death took several years to spread around Europe.
At start of composition, I know I want to indicate the plague and it’s history so I collage onto my surface, a global map. I want to add a phylogenetic tree but I fill the space with symbolic fingerprints instead. This detail eventually goes.
Plague, infectious disease, zoonotic in nature meaning it’s transmitted between animals and humans. The main vector, a small flea, passes causative agent, Y. pestis to another living creature, in this case, a rat, aka, the reservoir host.
Can I refer to this as one cycle? Because we also have another cycle that involves the human.
Flea is vector, rat is reservoir host (first victim), and the bacteria being passed is non-motile, rod shaped, bipolar staining (looks like a closed safety pin). I especially enjoy drawing the rat. Felt a little bad for flea. Safety pins were nearby…fun photo op.
Humans are contaminated in various ways: flea bite (blood meal / flea throw-up), direct contact with infected animal or tissue, or by inhalation of droplets coughed by infected human or animal.
While the disease is important, I get so caught up in it (fyi, it’s fascinating and there’s a lot on it, look it up). And in the case of this study of Y. pestis, I wander into genome sequencing too (and also get lost).
Trying to understand a complicated set up, I eventually have to return to the focus for my visual…the pathogenic bug.
As I look at and draw in the bacteria, I recall Sandra telling me most look fairly similar and are small. She’s right, they do and they are.
Y. pestis, Gram-negative, nonmotile, rod shaped bacterium, I’ve decided I have an aversion to you. I can’t think straight to write about you.
You are facultative anaerobic which basically means you grow (survive) with or without oxygen (with or without oxygen!). You are held by some sort of slime layer that prevents you from being destroyed by king of the phagocytes (→macrophage).
Enter neutrophil, lymph node and macrophage.(replacing fingerprints)
You manage to colonize macrophages, reaching lymph nodes, and because the immune system doesn’t take you down you can enter the blood stream and organs leading to bubonic plague, septicemic plague or pneumonic plague. And if you’re inclined, you take people down quick!
The history of the plague and the details of the various transmissions are out there to read about. And genome sequencing helps to tie up the story as it passes through time.
Though unlike my last study where I manage to pull it all together (at least in my head and on my painting surface) – this pathogen and its disease has me going from one complexity to another. I keep wishing I was painting on a large sheet of paper that I can erase and rework instead of circular, 11.5″ form. Oh well.
Questions I have as I learn about Y. pestis and its disease:
Who is the victim in the end? Every life form that comes into contact with Y. pestis, is my guess.
And who survives? (I sort of asked this question in the last post) My best guess is, it all depends on who, what and when. There are lots of fleas and rats, after all, and maybe many humans too (in other words overpopulation).
Will the bacteria be destroyed completely? Does it serve a purpose?
Does the bacteria’s nonmotile quality benefit it in some way? It seems to me it would want to move.
Any comments or questions? Please share them!
Thank you Sandra, for introducing me to your work, past and present. And helping me along as I organize my thoughts. I will say this study and how I moved through it, in some weird way, activated my imagination and maybe at times even each of my senses.
#LotsOfActivity
I especially enjoyed our conversation about DNA (and RNA) and the common thread (strands) that connects us all. I’ll hope to come back to this one day.
More → Dr Sandra Reuter and her work.
Postscript: It was hard for me to keep this information organized so I could understand. Maybe because I quit drinking coffee this last month…who knows. Anyway, it’s interesting to be looking at this topic in the context of this last year. It moves me into looking forward. All life seeks to survive.
©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ
Monica Aissa Martinez 
Dear Monica!
Thanks for this really interesting blog post and the art it produced! I really like the drawing of the bacteria, with the DNA coiled inside! You say you have an aversion to them from a disease point of view – I can relate but your bacteria look very nice and friendly to me! I now finally got round to answering some of your questions.
Q: Plague is transmitted between animals and humans via a flea vector. Can I refer to this as one cycle? Because we also have another cycle that involves the human.
A: Absolutely! I think in fact, in technical terms this is called the sylvatic cycle. Silva Latin for wood, sylvatic “of the wood”, so referring to wild animals. The opposite would be the domestic or urban cycle.
Q: Who is the victim in the end? And who survives?
A: Not sure I like the idea of victim and survivor. As in the last post, there is a sort of adaptation, a mutual understanding. In a way I sometimes see the plague bacillus as a victim as well because it is so highly specialized in what it does! It is stuck in a particular niche which means it cannot move elsehwere either. So, in a way a victim of its success. Which also means it can be defeated – if there are no people it can infect because they have either all been killed or restricted their interaction and contact, then that particular outbreak or transmission or chain breaks. So that’s the end of the road for the bacterium, unless it moves back into the wild.
Q: Does it serve a purpose?
A: I guess the only purpose is survival? This is a bit of a deep and philosophical question to me. It is certainly not like other bacteria we have in our gut that we need for our own good, or like those mircoorganisms that help with making bread or beer, or that ferment milk.
Q: Does the nonmotile quality benefit in some way? It seems to me it would want to move.
A: I agree, I think motility is a benefit. The plague bacillus got rid of it because it thought it wouldn’t need it anymore. The idea in bacteria is if something (metabolic pathway, motility, maybe pigmentation/colour, things like that) is not needed, then there is no selection pressure and no pressure to accurately replicate the DNA. Thus, errors get introduced over time, parts are lost, and things become non-functional. For the bacterium, the benefit of that is that it needs to replicate less DNA, which is costly and time-consuming, so that might be an advantage. But with every ability you lose, you also adapt to the conditions you are in but limit yourself in what else you could do. So, I guess the plague bacillus does not miss its lost motility but I would think it is a benefit generally to be motile!
Sandra
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Dear Monica,
I do have some questions back to you!
The circular form is interesting and different. Do you always paint on circular forms, or is this specific for this project? What made you chose circular? I could imagine are difficult to plan maybe, but also they might remind people of a mirror or the circle of life – since this is all to do with bugs and their interaction with people.
Will you do an exhibition of all these paintings in the end, and what happens to them afterwards? I think it would be interesting to see them all together but also certainly with the stories attached to them. They are beautiful on their own but I feel like they definitely emerge out of conversation.
Sandra
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I started using a circular format when I began studying microbes a few years back. I worked mostly on mylar and worked both sides of the sheet, in that case. Initially I thought of petri dishes and the fact that they are transparent, is why I worked on mylar. This presented a problem with hanging/framing.
In this case I wanted to use the circular format because I thought I was going to be looking at “bugs”, under a microscope. The circle still connects to the petri dish. I also want the the work to have an object-like quality (precious). They will hang on a wall, but they can also sit on a shelf or table and they can be held (at least in theory). I especially like that I can hold them.
I didn’t care for the hard-edge circular panels at the art store so my husband helped me cut these wooden forms.
I set out to work on 12″ diameter and very soon realized the project was not going to be about producing “bugs”! I was learning science, physiology, stages and cycles. I made a second 8″ diameter form. And then with your study, I made a third 6″ form. This is only possible because I am cutting my own forms.
I am also using materials in a different way including a different sorts of brushes. Sometimes I wish the space was much, much bigger and sometimes I want the square format back. I feel this is all “experimental”.
I love your idea of mirror! and circle of life for sure…add in life-cycle. Yes, all of it.
I hope to exhibit these as a grouping – yes. They wouldn’t exist without the story.
Eventually I will be ok parting with them individually or as a group.
Thanks for your part in this and for the questions! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I approached the work in terms of size and material.
And thanks for your answers to my questions. These day I am understanding “adaptation” more and more.
Monica
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Dear Monica!
A petri dish – of course! Classic symbol of microbiology! Or the round viewing field through a microscope. Except that in “modern” microbiology it is all done quite molecular biology – test tube reactions, sequencers, etc, so I forgot about it. Comes from sitting in front of a computer (square frame) all day. 🙂
I’m curious to see what bug is next!
Sandra
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