Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Mutualism: A close relationship between bacteria and human

Mutualism is without a doubt the most peaceful form of symbiosis in the ecosystem. There are many different forms of mutualism in today's world. For instance, humans provide cardon dioxide to plants while the plants give us oxygen. However, there is another major relationship I would like to talk about, bacteria and humans.

When you first hear of bacteria, you think of words like germs, sick, and the common "icky". On the other hand, you may not have heard the bacteria is vital to our everyday existence. They help us digest our food, give us vitamin K and fight off bad bacteria which causes disease. In return, we give them a place to live and do basic activities like eat and reproduce. Other activities bacteria helps us do is decompose garbage and turn milk into cheese and yogurt.

Many types of bacteria can harm you causing like they can cause disease. However, in most cases they can benefit from them and they benefit from us by living inside of us. In my opinion, bacteria is a very crucial aspect in our society. Without it, we won't be able to live. In addition, if they didn't have us, they wouldn't be able to live to. Therefore, the relationship between humans and bacteria are mutualistic.