Endosymbiogenesis & the Human Microbiome

Image: Coral quartz and its amazing correspondence with a transected segment of the human sigmoid colon showing polyps.

Konstantin Mereschcowsky (1855-1921) was a prominent Russian biologist, botanist and advocate of eugenics active mainly around Kazan whose research on lichens led him to propose the theory of symbiogenesis - that larger, more complex cells evolved from symbiotic relationship between less complex ones.

He presented this theory in 1909, in his Russian work, The Theory of Two Plasms as the Basis of Symbiogenesis, a New Study or the Origins of Organisms, although the fundamentals of the idea already had appeared in his earlier 1905 work, The nature and origins of chromatophores in the plant kingdom.

He was inspired by his work as a leading lichenologist - lichens were of major interest at the time as it had recently been shown that they exhibit a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. Around the turn of the century Konstantin collected a sizeable lichen herbarium, containing over 2000 specimens from lands in Russia, Austria and around the Mediterranean. The collection is currently in the possession of Kazan University. He also studied hydras.

Bailey Flower Essences ~ Lichen

Lichens are strange plants composed of two different species living together in an interlocked relationship. The essence of Lichen mirrors this but in a rather different manner. We are part of the universe and the universe is a part of us, but when that relationship becomes strained, when we feel alienated from the source of our being, life can be very difficult and unrewarding. Indeed, in extreme circumstances we may feel that there is just no point in going on living.

Lichen enables us to bond firmly once more with the universe and all that it contains, not only at the material level of physical earth, but also at the psychic and spiritual levels - all part of our birthright.

Although the modern evolutionary synthesis supports Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Merezhovsky's ideas of symbiogenesis are reflected in the modern endosymbiotic theory developed and popularised by Lynn Margulis (1938-2011).

The endosymbiotic theory was advanced and substantiated with microbiological evidence by Lynn Margulis in a 1967 paper, The Origin of Mitosing Eukaryotic Cells. In her 1981 work Symbiosis in Cell Evolution she argued that eukaryotic cells originated as communities of interacting entities, including endosymbiotic spirochaetes that developed into eukaryotic flagella and cilia. This last idea has not received much acceptance, because flagella lack DNA and do not show ultrastructural similarities to bacteria or archaea.  According to Margulis and Dorion Sagan:

 "Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking"

Twenty-six years have passed since the publication of Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution, co-authored by Lynn Margulis and her son Dorion Sagan.  In 2006, Astrobiology Magazine marked the 20th anniversary of this publication by interviewing Margulis, then a distinguished university professor of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

The Astrobiology Magazine Interviews

Microbial Planet ~ Part I

We Are All Microbes ~ Part II

Bacteria Don't Have Species ~ Part III

Bacterial Intelligence ~ Part IV


Margulis was a controversial figure in the world of biological science. Many of the ideas she and Sagan put forth in Microcosmos, which met stiff resistance at the time, are now widely accepted. In  a four-part interview, Margulis talked about how scientific understanding of early life on Earth has changed, and explained one of the central ideas of her life's work: symbiogenesis.

If you look up consciousness in the dictionary, it says, "awareness of the world around you," and that's because you lose it somehow when you become unconscious, right? Well, you can show that microorganisms, or bacteria, are certainly conscious. They will orient themselves, they will work together to make structures. They'll do a lot of things. This ability to respond specifically to the environment and to act creatively, in the sense that that precise action has never been taken before, is a property of life. ~ Lynn Margulis, 2006

Bacteria outnumber human cells in the body by 10 to 1.

Bacteria are the Eldest lifeforms on Earth.

Wisdom of the Elders.

Go Within.

Human Microbiome Project ~ the future of Energy & Vibrational healing.