How Our Deadliest Parasite Turned To The Dark Side
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- Around 10,000 years ago, somewhere in Africa, a microscopic parasite made a huge leap. With a little help from a mosquito, it left its animal host - probably a gorilla - and found its way to a new host: us.
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References: docs.google.com/document/d/1I...
this really puts into perspective how monumental the eradication of smallpox is. Humanity leveraged every state-of-the art resource it had to annihilate an infectious disease that has existed with us from the very beginning. Perhaps we can do the impossible again with malaria?
The "gene drive" could do it, but it's a pretty scary technology if abused.
Who cares about malaria covid is the real problem.
Too many anti-vaxxers right now for us to accomplish anything...
Orrrrr COVID
Rabies is all but eliminated in human populations! If one could prevent being bite by a mosquito (mosquito control), or prevent the parasite from causing disease in people (vaccines) - can you can theoretically eliminate the disease.
I've never seen anybody being so happy to present how Malaria started
hail to malaria
That's the way the news goes :v
She turns to the darkside
Theory of evolution is such creative story telling.
@@AlamoOriginal That sounds kinky 😂
it literally blows my mind that scientists can determine an energy process in a creature millions of years old.
Dayum. That must hurt
R.I.P to Chubb Rocks mind
Don't worry Chubo Rocks brain is only 10% dead now he should recover.
Ann Perkins :) that is *literally* the nicest thing I've heard someone say about paleobiology this week :) nice work!
Literally?
Special shout-out to the person who transcribed the script into the closed captions. Not only does it make it easier for people with sensory processing disorders (like me) understand the videos, but it helps look up terms so that we all can read into more. Kudos!
@Ik huh
@Ik I'm sorry what
@@orangecat9559 He is joking about how auto captions are bad with understanding what person is saying.
Thank you for reminding everyone that captions are important to more than just the deaf community! Myself have a hearing disorder where my brain can't tell which sounds are speech so often the background music completely blocks words. It's most of the reason I don't watch videos right away, gotta wait for captions to be added, and end up missing the conversation in the comments.
Honestly this shouldn't even be a special thing but ever since CZcams destroyed community captions here we are. Now I can't understand foreign videos.
Most people would be amazed to learn that chlorophyll and hemoglobin are related by a single precursor: protoporphyrin. This vid is a great example of how closely evolution was for both plants and animals. Nicely done!
one uses magnesium, another one uses iron as centra stage
@@fannyalbi9040 correct.
Oh wow! Never knew this! Wow!
"Originally, humanity was clay. From being mineral we became vegetable. from vegetable we became animal, and from animal, human. During these periods, humanity did not know where it was going, but we were being taken on a long journey nonetheless. And we have to go through a hundred different worlds yet!"
Rumi
Wait that actually makes sense.
A mosquito found in amber? In the Dominican Republic? Where have I heard that before......
Yeah a scary movie starts out that way
Life will always find a way
*Footsteps shakes water in a glass*
One of the most interesting tidbit’s I’ve learned about in undergrad is the relationship between sickle-cell disease and malaria. Sickle-cell anemia having a resistance to malaria, but also being inherently harmful itself; however, the lesser of two evils.
My ex biology teacher had sickle cell anaemia and he told us this fact every moment he could during the genetics module
Sickle cell means you live long enough to reproduce instead of just getting wasted by malaria at age 8. If you can live long enough to pass it on, it’s fair game as far as evolution is concerned.
@@SpikedHairVSGravity I like that you phrase the harsh reality this way. It's all too often we hear the phrase "x animals adapted to y environment" in these types of videos, when in reality most died before reproducing. There wasn't a collective thought about adapting/evolving, just a ton of dying and a smidge of reproducing.
Sickle cell trait is what provides the protection
Oh oh oh! On that topic, did you know that doctors during the early 20th century used to intentionally infect people suffering from late stage neurosymptomatic Syphilis with Malaria? The Syphilis bacterium is susceptible to heat and thus got killed in the high fevers caused by the infection. Since they didn't have Penicillin back then and Malaria was a bit easier to treat that was one of the few things they could do, albeit not without risk. I think there was a Nobel Prize handed out for the method sometime in the 1920s.
I used to have to watch similar videos to this for school and absolutely hated it because instead of absorbing the content I was made to take tedious notes and always had the looming threat of quizzes and tests. Now I watch these for sheer educational entertainment and honestly retain so much more. Thank you for these great videos and keeping my curiosity alive after school tried to crush it.
who'd thought that microscopic palaeontology could be as epic if not more than the regular stuff
Probably microscopic paleontologist
Disney will make an kids animation movie about it.
@@stant7122 Nooo
Off topic, but you have an AMAZING pfp
@@stant7122 cells at work disney adaption:p
I had it. Got symptoms a few weeks after my discharge so I had to go to a local hospital. They certainly didn't take it very seriously on the first night I rocked up, despite having told them I was a soldier, deployed to a known malaria zone and having told them I'd seen other guys with exactly the same symptoms. To say the triage nurses were dubious would be an understatement. Probably thought I was a softcock with a cold. Softcock?...maybe, common cold?...not this time.
I sat for hours and my fever spike went down while I waited, so I went home. Went back the next night and my symptoms were horrendous, that worried them :D. On duty doctor started talking about lumbar punctures, encephalitis and other bollocks. Thankfully a bright spark called the head of infectious diseases and Dr Peter Collignon was summoned. He diagnosed Malaria, and confirmed with a blood test, what a surprise. Was amusing to hear him give some stern words about listening to a patient. I believe he now runs the ANU Medical school, at Australia's premier university.
Human medical staff not listening to their patients and trying to run up larger bills on unnecessary tests rather than ruling out the first concern of the patient? Big surprise lol
And then they wonder why people don't go to the hospital when they get actually sick
@@slaayerr1 As opposed to lizard medical staff?
@@heyiquit nah, the reason I say that is I come from the veterinary field and we tend to laugh at the human med field all the time. We are expected to be a "jackass of all trades" for both vets and techs. And we get paid dirt compared to human doctors and nurses who generally have less tasks per individual while also being able to pawn off any financial responsibility to the financial department. There's a human medical field and animal medical field (vets) so it's moreso just a reflex for me to call them that
I wonder if you working for the military has a role in reinforcing the class structure that causes the shittyness of the health care system
As someone who works in healthcare, this is extremely fascinating. I would have never thought that Plasmodium had its origins as algae!
Same here! It's so fascinating!
I just started a job producing aquatic plants for ponds, and I am just as fascinated.
My postgraduate research work in public health and tropical medicine was on malaria as it is still a disease that continues to ravage people in my country; it centered of course on the public health implications of this parasitism, not solely on its biology, though I have some ideas. To learn about its evolutionary history and how it became a parasite of humans and non-human primates eventually is truly interesting, and it has been presented clearly through this video. Thank you PBS Eons!
Nice downlow brag
Can we read this research? Thanks.
Paleo pun for you: the evolution of how people move houses has mirrored the evolution of life on Earth. These days, most people pack up and move stuff themselves: they're YOU-carry-its. Whereas, in the past, people would hire movers and let the PRO-carry-it.
I should have learned this during my biology class 😂
AAAA NOOOOOOOO WHYYYY
🤦♀️
I’d love a video on how menstruation originated and evolved in different species
Yes, please!
Olivia Gorton hosted an episode of scishow on this exact topic! I recommend searching for it if you're interested.
Wow this would be insanely interesting
damn i actually never thought about that
I watched a 4 min TedEd video on the subject yesterday and my mind was blown. I had no idea what it's purpose truly was and I studied biology at university. Why was this never covered. O___O
I'm intrigued about its evolution now. I mean, monkeys, apes, humans... But also some species of bat and the elephant shrew menstruate? I mean, what?!
Malaria is still a huge problem in my country
Hahahaha
Where do you live?
I had malaria in Nigeria.
Cured with hydroxychloroquine!
@@user-zz9bp1gx3d not funny bro shut up
@@rickkwitkoski1976 That's what hydroxychloroquine is actually for...
@@theboydiego5528 HAHAHAHAH 36 subs nice
PBS eons, the gift that keeps on giving.
My favorite thread between all the episodes is that the hosts keep getting fitter with each episode.
The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some considered to be unnatural
The time frames discussed wherein the ancestors of Plasmodium transitioned to being parasitic into the kingdom Animalia includes the era of Snowball Earth. Without sunlight under the ice the chloroplastic aspect was unfunctional. And by chance evolution the Plasmodium ancestors invaded some of the few Animalia creatures that survived the ice cover.
Also, since it had gained chloroplast through secondary endosymbiosis, it stands to reason it could still have the necessary animal baggage.
Plants are (mostly) primary, so IMO much less likely to reverse to predation. The thought is till disturbing though.
make sense
There must have been some plants able to photosynthesize, and almost all the animals and parasites that survived (except near hydrothermal vents and a few others) lived near them, otherwise they'd all have died out.
Guys, this is one of my fave episodes yet. It's just so cool how studying nature today, alongside fossils from the past, is what unlocks the mysteries.
So true! 🙏
I never thought I'd hear the phrase "A cellular Turducken" in my life, and yet here we are.
Another brilliant video.
I had to look up what turducken means. I guess turducken must be an American thing.
That was a definite LOL moment.
@@MindinViolet Hahahaha.
@@MindinViolet I grew up in the region, have eaten this dish but never heard it called turducken. but it was something served at an event. Imagine that its a rather eleborate dish to prepare
It’s matryoshka doll in dish form
With so many lineages that have led to parasitism, I now wonder how many, if any, have gone the reverse, evolving to at least situational free living.
One species of apicomplexa was believed to be parasitic in a group of tunicates but over time the relationship became mutualistic with the apicomplexan feeding off of and processing nitrogenous waste.
@@TheRedKnight101 Glad to see someone else mention this the tunicates in question are the Molgula aka sea grapes because they are round and about the size of a grape. The apicomplexan is called Nephromyces. It is often the exceptions to the rule which are often so telling of the nature of natural selection.
The main mode of locomotion of apicomplexans the so called glide movement from what I have read seems to be optimized for moving through the tissues of animals and into and out of cells which makes free living lifestyles very unlikely to evolve.
Insects! Because they have a larval stage their lifestyles are flexible. For example a fly can switch from fresh meat, to carrion, to dung, and back again with ease.
only one evolved from parasite to free living.... joe biden
It's crazy how taking microbiology makes all this stuff make sense🤯
Samedt
sæm
When I think of how many times I got malaria growing up. I was shocked to learn how deadly it is.
Where’d you grow up?
@@KeegoonBarnacle he's a mosquito
How is that your first question and not, "how often are you catching malaria!?"
@@KeegoonBarnacle Probably smack dab in the middle of Papua New Guinea
Are you sure it was malaria and not dengue fever? Unless it was one of the less deadly malaria strains
I hate parasites, but I LOVE this presenter! She's super engaging and just overall pleasant. Almost makes you wanna start studying for a degree in parasitology. 🤓🧐 PBS, this lady deserves a raise, please!
No, it's just your physical affection towards her. She's not better than the average presenter....
Stop simping.
🌽 🏀
"Cellular turducken" is the term I never knew I needed, but now cannot live without.
I work at a haematology lab and have a fairly good understanding of malaria and this video just blew my mind once again!!
Plasmodium woke up one day and chose violence
The idea of endosymbiosis is so fascinating. It also shows how there is kind of a common resource language or shared media between different branches of life.
Love this channel so much. Thanks for all your work.
With endosymbiosis, like the origin of mitochondria, does that mean there was literally one event in which a single cell absorbed another, and that single cell then became the ancestor of all cells that have mitochondria, or was this something that happened regularly, so we can trace our ancestry to a whole population of cells that absorbed other cells?
Asking the real questions here!
The endosymbiosis event is thought to have occurred just once to give rise to all cells that have each endosymbiont (mitochrondria, chloroplast, etc)
It'd make sense that if it happened with one cell it could've happened to more of the same under the same conditions, unless it's a situation where they should've been destroyed when absorbed but weren't, like how mutated cells are supposed to be killed immediately by our bodies but sometimes they aren't and make cancer cells.
I would think the one group of cells (by mere mathematical odds) endocytosed mitochondria at one point. Having a distinct evolutionary advantage, they proliferated and dominated resources till they were the only ones left.
@@twilightprince4833 you would think wrong then. it's wildly considered to have just been one event and one cell. this is one of the main arguments actually in a form of the rare earth hypothesis, that complex life is either very rare or does not exist outside of the earth because of how unlikely this event (which is necessary for multicellular life) was.
I love PBS Eons but there is something that really shocked me, in a primary endosymbiosis there are no eukaryotes. These ones resulted from the endosymbiosis this primary one from an eubacteria and what could have been a archaebacteria, giving place to what later once the endosymbiosis was established became an Eukaryote.
Is this an example of a 'plant' evolving into and 'animal'? Are there any other examples of this, because that's cool af.
Right??
Algae and malaria are protozoans, neither of which are plants. The closest thing we have to plants evolving into animals are carnivorous plants which kind of take on a hetero/autotrophic hybrid role.
@@eggrollsoup Even carnivorous plants still derive all their energy from the sun, relying on their prey just for nutrition (mostly nitrogen). I think a better argument could be made for holoparasitic plants being "animal-like," they often don't even have chlorophyll; they get both their energy and the carbon for biomass from the host plants they parasitize
@@akhasshativeritsol1950 Yes I know, there is a famous one called the dodder plant which parasitizes other plants, and then there is even one that parasitizes fungus! But yea, that’s why I said they are kind of both heterotrophs and autotrophs, i grow VFTs so i’m fully aware of how important sunlight is for energy to them.
Ironically malaria may play a part in preserving many animal species -where there are too many mosquitoes in Africa people can't settle and raise their cattle,do farming etc -this ensures the survival of many species present in these areas -if there were to be a total cure for malaria these regions would then be settled by humans.
Eco- facism
Researcher #1: They are more parasites than algaes. Twisted and evil.
Researcher #2: There are still plastids inside of them.
I’d love to see a similar video on the origin of Treponema pallidum, the bacteria that cauSes syphilis
Do you have it..?
@@DeletedAccountForSure Thats a strange question to ask someone, but no. I work in the field and deal with it a lot, but weird question to ask someone.
@@DeletedAccountForSure 🤣
I don’t know what the visuals would be, and I don’t WANT to know!
@@stefankoltz4705Which field do you work in?
Hey PBS eons, another great episode! Along these lines, would you be able to do an episode about the evolution of adaptive immunity? Either focused on humans or comparatively across vertebrates? Thank you!
Terrific information. I got malaria in Panama, and my buddies got it in Honduras and Vietnam. I hope a cure can be found it.
Cures exist, Doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine to name just 2
I believe there's a vaccine now, or one that's close to being done!
Eon, Happy New year! May all of us find it better than last. Thank you for another great presentation.
i’m early to this video u guys are amazing love the content
I love this kind of discovery it’s so flipping neat.
TIL about secondary endosymbiosis. This was _far_ more fascinating than I expected it to be, and I’m already a hardcore fan of this channel (so I knew it was gonna be good).
Love PBS Eons. Could you do more on other examples of symbiotic relationships
Simply fantastic! And congrats for the great work.
Excellent presentation Kallie!
"cellular turducken" lmao that's fantastic
This episode was absolutely incredible! 🤯
This is absolutely fascinating!
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I needed to see this just to understand this creature. A lot of people only think malaria exist in Africa. We have plenty in the southern part of Asia too
Im so paranoid about parasites (not a logical paranoia either. 🤦) so had to watch this immediately
Actually, it is logical because it's something that harm us.
@@RedTsarOldChannel-INACTIVE
💕❤💕
Bad news, you already have some
Thank you so much for all your intense research this is so fascinating!!
I dunno why but the subtle piano music in the outro really hit hard. Also! Great great job Kallie!
Marine animals eating algae, algae going Super Saiyan and mutating to parasitize marine animals. What an epic revenge story!
Were they ever animals?
@@captsorghum who?
Este tipo de información debería estar al alcance de todo el mundo. Te ayuda inmensamente a entender lo poco que sabemos sobre como funciona el universo. Fascinante video!
This is sooo informative~ wonderful~👍
Love how cozy you make it sound.
Wait. Medical doctor here. You are telling me that cryptosporidium, plasmodium, babesia, isospora, cyclospora, toxoplasma and other all had a common ancestor who had chlorophyl? What the heck man. This needs more explaining.
Right?! That one throwaway line imploded my brain.
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." - Jedi Master Yoda
Always.
Thanks for this awesome video guys!!!
As always, thanks for making this understandable!
I always thought endosymbiosis was the strangest thing I ever learned about evolutionary biology.
as someone who’s going to study biology this is the most interesting video i’ve seen in a while
"A cellular turducken." Never thought I’d hear those words used together.
I appreciate the dark background! Thank you!! I watch these videos at night before sleep and it helps to not have my eyes jolted w a bright light or my sleepy time disrupted. Pls keep the dark background for all future videos!
The hosts and everyone who puts this channel together are freaking awesome!
New fear unlocked 🔓: Plants can evolve to kill you
This video so kindly reminded me that it is completely dark inside my body and that still, for some reason, makes me uncomfortable
Just thank you and please keep up the great work
Darth Malaria, interesting.
Great presentation… but didn’t touch on what must have been a coevolution with the, or a, vector (in this case mosquitoes) once they followed animals onto land.
This is one of your finest videos. Please make a video about parakaryon if you can!
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
It is inherently obvious that our next step should be to restore photosyntesis in these parasites, so that our relationship with them can go from parasitic to symbiotic :D
is it inherently obvious
Have you read Old Man's War?
@@TacticusPrime Have you read Asimov's "Green Patches"? (Yes, Scalzi is great!)
Will this magical parasite turn my skin green with the power of photosynthesis? Is it your ultimate goal to turn humans into vegetables? Who are you working for!?
@@YouzACoopa points at you lets out a body snatchers shriek
I just wrote a paper about the selective pressures of malaria on human genetics! So interesting 🧬
it does sound interesting, guess it's kind of a generic armsrace?
Wow, I find this one of the most interesting episodes of your channel!
Fascinating video! Love this channel 😊❤
I greatly prefer toxoplasma gondii myself.
Every child will in FACT be better off with these PBS episodes replacing high school science. I can't complain enough how ill structured and toxic school environments are. What our system has now just makes it toxic to learn when half of the classes(in my experience in HS) are asleep or uninterested in subject. The next generation needs to be shown applicable science, cause and effect, even teachers need to be involved with students like parents. No wonder there are so many messed up people it all comes down to careful upbringing. All of this etc.
Ill forever be grateful of this second home of mine called PBS, learning is the light in my life. Only wish I could have been on this path earlier
Really wasn’t expecting the “turducken” reference
Your videos are so interesting!!! Love them!!!!❤
I spent a few seconds wondering how and why anyone would publish a paper on a piece of amber, instead of on paper or electronically.
That's one way to preserve it for posterity.
Could the Baykonurian glaciation (549-530 Ma) have been the cause of the shift away from photosynthesis? most of the continents were clustered at the south pole, and being cut off from sunlight due to ice is a pretty large evolutionary pressure....
Always interesting, thank you.
Excellent.Thankyou.
Sydney Harbour I might have seen that looking for P Sherman
Could you also go in to the opposite. When a parasitic microbe changed it's behaviour to be a positive beneficiary of it's host. In some with the only task is to keep of other harmful parasites from stealing there spot in the body of the host.
Like a cellular Danelaw.
Keeping the infected host healthy (or at least from dying while carrying and spreading you), would be hugely beneficial to a parasite.
Diseases have no interest in killing you. They only need you to spread them before you die. There's nothing gained from your death, it's always an unintended side effect. Lots of highly lethal diseases jumped from other animals to humans, and those animals aren't much bothered by them.
@@Yora21 there are enough parasites that will do everything to get it's host eaten so it can get to the next part of it's cycle.
I mean where a parasite becomes beneficial tot the point that the host might actual help the microbe to get on or inside of it's self.
@@sirBrouwer I think this is how a lot of mamalian (and probably long before mammals evolved I’m sure) microbiota came to be. Lots of these bacterium are opportunistic, but kept in check by our immune systems. But these bacterium help us digest different foods, and protect from other pathogens, and prevent their colonization.
This must’ve happened a long time ago, alongside many species, but it’s pretty cool to see. As far as I know humans couldn’t survive without many of these organisms that naturally colonize them.
Whew! For such a tiny subject this episode got pretty deep!
I love this channel!
0:23 "This parasite would go on to be the deadliest in the history of humanity." says this in an optimistic and happy tone
I wish I could talk like you… You sound so confident and knowledgeable! Keep up the work Eons-Team! ❤️🔥
Just love these videos!!!
Awesome episode
I was once infected with this parasite.2-3weeks fever was jumping up and down....finally doctor gave me three(maybe four) doses of some injection and I was fine!
I was around 10 back then.
Nice information 😊
Geez, a mutualist turned parasite, how nasty! Reminds me of the vampire finches of the Galapagos, which started as mutualists that removed parasites from larger booby birds, but later evolved to go directly for their blood instead.
Fascinating stuff!
You either die a hero or live long enough to see your self become a villain
I love your channel and videos! However, I may have some minor auditory processing issues, and I found the music in this episode very distracting. It was difficult to process what the host was saying behind the music, and I had to really focus to understand. It would be great if the music could be significantly quieter in the future, for the sake of people like me. Thanks for your consideration!
im sorry i cant get over that she's talking about death and disease in a super happy calm voice
Pretty fascinating stuff. Hopefully the insight gained can be used to help eradicate this disease.
thats just mindblowingly awesome
Pretty cool how they discovered this! A shame we can't teach them how to go back to being algal, LOL!