Monday, October 1, 2018

Mites Living with Us



- 2108 -  -  Mites are the smallest insects , or arthropods , that live on our bodies.  They live in our eye lashes and eye brows.  The geographical distribution of these mite's DNA may create a whole new map of how human populations were diverging across the globe. 
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------------------  2108  -  Mites Living with Us
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-  Mites are the smallest insects , or arthropods , that live on our bodies.  They live in our eye lashes and eye brows.  Thousands of them have been with each of us since birth.  They are called Demodex as a species.  They are eight legged arthropods that live in your hair follicles eating your dead skin.  They have been living with each of us since birth. 
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-  Science has just begun analyzing the DNA of these face mites.  We now know that they have even been with us since human history began.  As human history spread across the planet these mites too reproduced from generation to generation on our bodies.  They evolved alongside our own evolution.  They carried their own distinct lineages the same as we did over this entire history. 
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-  Today there are distinct lineages of mites corresponding to distinct strains in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. This DNA research has traced face mites lineage to a common ancestor dating back to 3,000,000 years ago.  This history coincided with the appearance of the first Homo genus. 
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-  The mites living on your face have their own lineage because they were living off your ancestors too.  We inherited our face mites through close contacts at birth and being spread through close family members.  Each strain of mites has evolved and adapted to our own facial ecosystem.  For example, African mites would likely not survive on a person of North American descent.
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-  This brings up the idea that a person's ancestry can be determined by the genetic makeup of the mites living with them. 
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-  Some early determinations of these studies have found from DNA that African and Asians strains are the most similar.  They have found European mites to have their DNA most wide spread across the globe.  It is likely that these European face mites traveled the world with the earlier explorers. 
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-  This study is just beginning.  The geographical distribution of mite's DNA may create a whole new map of how human populations were diverging across the globe. 
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-  Did I just catch you scratching your face?. 
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-  More to learn about who is living with you:
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-  There are only two species of eyelash mites that live on humans.  Different species of animals host different species of Demodex.  Demodex Canis lives on the domestic dog.  All in all there are 65 known species of different Demodex so far identified.
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-  Face mites were first discovered in 1842.  The adult mites are only 0.012 to 0.016 inches long.  They have semitransparent bodies that are elongated with two segments.  Their bodies are covered with scales that allow them to anchor themselves to our bodies.  They have eight short segmented legs.  They have mouth parts that eat skin cells and oils that accumulate in hair follicles.  They slowly walk around our skin especially at night because they try to avoid the light.
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-  Face mites live for several weeks.  They reproduce from male and female parents.  The female's eggs are laid inside the hair follicles. The eggs hatch into larvae in four days and develop into adults in seven days.
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-  Think about it.  These generations have been reproducing on us for 3 million years.  Amazing!
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-  See Review 1837 about Microbes.  
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 ---------------------   Monday, October 1, 2018   -------------------------
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