Do Microbes have Immune Systems? - Robin May

Watch the Q&A session here: • Q&A: Do Microbes have ...
We often think of immunity as being a human, or at least mammalian, phenomenon. But in fact almost all living organisms have some form of immune system. In this lecture we’ll lift the lid on the astonishingly diverse immune mechanisms used by bacteria, amoebae, nematodes and many other microbial forms of life in their constant battle against viruses and each other.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 2nd October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac...
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[@timoshea2449]

Great lecture. So much I didn't know. Thanks!

[@sharonphillips3341]

Thank you. I thoroughly enjoy listening to Robin May's lectures.

[@ThomasKnott]

I got excited when I saw the new upload 🎉

[@NancyLebovitz]

This is an excellent lecture. Plenty I didn't know before, including an extremely detailed decription of slime molds. However, i'm still not sure how single cells protect themselves without dying. Or do they all need to use smaller organisms?

[@danwylie-sears1134]

My guess before hearing most of the lecture: No. Microbes have things that are analogous to immune systems, and include components that are homologous to parts of bilaterian immune systems. Probably enough to provide plenty of content for a textbook, let alone a lecture. But the bilaterian immune system didn't come together _as a system_ until almost the end of the proterozoic, long after the ancestors of our mitochondria diverged from other bacteria and the ancestors of our nuclei diverged from other archaea. So our immune system is not homologous to their immune-system analogs, and therefore should not be named as the same thing.

[@mussaratshaheen3412]

Very nice

[@parhwy]

Me, who had a tattoo two days ago, watching this: 😮

[@gloriaroman8620]

Hi

[@JamesBarry-j7m]

Now I want to know how do they vote labor or conservative 😂😅😆

[@howard1beale]

They're too intelligent to vote