Recently I performed some infectious disease testing using shotgun metagenomics. The idea is you sequence the DNA of everything in the sample then remove the human stuff and see what is left. It is a hypothesis free method of testing for pathogens, but it also creates a load of data that is not necessarily useful.
Amongst the many types of bacteria that was found in my blood, one stands out as particularly unusual:
Desemzia incerta. There is not a lot of information about it, but it was first isolated from an insect (the ovary of a cicada, no less). I cannot find any evidence that it has ever been isolated in a human sample before.
What do you guys think of that? On one hand, there are weird bacteria all over the place so this might have no significance whatsoever. On the other, I was wondering if I might find a vector borne infection, and here we have a bacteria associated with cicada ovaries (I don't remember ever having dealings with a cicada ovary, if that is what you're thinking).
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Amongst the many types of bacteria that was found in my blood, one stands out as particularly unusual:
Desemzia incerta. There is not a lot of information about it, but it was first isolated from an insect (the ovary of a cicada, no less). I cannot find any evidence that it has ever been isolated in a human sample before.
What do you guys think of that? On one hand, there are weird bacteria all over the place so this might have no significance whatsoever. On the other, I was wondering if I might find a vector borne infection, and here we have a bacteria associated with cicada ovaries (I don't remember ever having dealings with a cicada ovary, if that is what you're thinking).
Does anyone have any thoughts?