Pathogens, Plants and Ponies · 9:13pm Oct 11th, 2016
The detail which got my attention in Where the Apple Lies was the idea that apple blight could infect ponies as well as apple trees. And why not? Stranger biology goes on in Equestria. And as I have wanted to write something about the activities of Special Agent Sweetie Drops for a while, this provided sufficient inspiration for my latest one-shot: Sweet Apple Biohazard. Do take a look if you haven't already done so.
Apple blight is a vague, unscientific term which could refer to a number of symptoms affecting apple trees, but it seems to be most commonly linked to fireblight—an infectious disease caused by the Erwinia amylovora bacterium. Once a tree is infected the branches become dark and die and may take on a deep rust colour. Indigenous to North America, it has spread to terrorise apple farmers in many parts of the world, and efforts to keep it out of other parts have been a factor in international trade negotiations. There’s a gripping story from twenty years ago in the Los Angeles Times about this.
Meanwhile infectious diseases jumping species is the stuff of biohazard horror stories. Killers like the bubonic plague, HIV, E. Coli and Ebola come into this category. Bacteria and viruses, just like humans and ponies, are very good at adapting to colonise new environments and exploiting the available resources. Finding a new host can be a route to success for a pathogen.
Therefore government agencies like the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention are always vigilant about these risks. The nightmare scenario is that a new mutant form of something like Ebola appears, which could be especially efficient at infecting humans.
But could a mutant plant pathogen pose a risk to animals? This is an interesting question. In one way germ theory is a remarkable universal phenomenon—both plant and animal diseases can be caused by the same categories of microorganisms: micrometre-sized self-replicating bacteria, or the far smaller viruses—little more than a snip of rogue DNA—but which cause deadly havoc by hijacking their hosts cells to reproduce.
Most successful bacteria or viruses have adapted to a particular environment, and their lifecycle requires a particular type of host. It would make sense that the real killers are those micro-critters which have evolved particularly successful ways to evade the immune system and spread from host to host. But such specialization narrows the list of possible targets, so if you’ve become particular good at infecting fruit trees, you’ll probably find your tactics don’t work so well with mammals. Yet bacteria able to move from plants to animals do exist. The textbook example is pseudomonas aeruginosa, regarded as an opportunistic pathogen—only a problem if your immune system is a little weak, otherwise it’s killed off easily enough.
So in our world you're rather more likely to contract a killer disease from a contaminated hamburger, than an apple pie. But in Equestria—the land of talking ponies, griffons, and parasprites—who knows?
Given bacerial DNa swapping and fungal symbiosis, and the Everfree and Timberwolves and Poison joke, I would think the level of valid hybridisation and cross transfer was prety much gurenteed.
Im still trying to work out teh extended Lineaus Classification system so that my gaming engine hypothesis can handle Pokemon breeding, like how Honeedge is a Steel Ghost type.
Im I going to far when I have entire branches for Living, nonliving, energy, matter based, and computational, non computational?
Nonliving, Noncomputational, Matter would have as a sub section, Minerals? but this would have references to clays and cellular formations in RNA encapsulation?
You did a lot of research on this subject..... I'm intrigued by what you're doing.
You made me curious and now I'm really tempted to read "Sweet Apple Biohazard" immediately. I'll see to squeeze it in somehow.
I would suppose a fungi is more likely to span species barriers than a virus. In certain damp, moist environments, humans are highly susceptible to a fungus that grows on beans and is unable to be destroyed by heat. In fact, roasting the beans and rinsing the resulting fragments results in a liquid version of the fungus that makes humans act erratic, acting as if they genuinely prefer the moist environment while cheering teams like the Seahawks.
We call these infected individuals Starbuckians.
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Don't forget how averse to sunlight it makes them. How else would they get so pale?
Funny thing is I have AJ use fireblight as a curse. Of course being Equestria I also have her mention it isn't that bad if you get it early enough you don't even have to worry about the burning. Because Equestira is really literal more often than not, so a plant disease that literally combusts at some point just makes sense.
And to go back to your actual point here that leads to Equestrian researchers not being most worried about jumping organisms, but about something harmless but common gaining a dangerous, or at least really annoying, magical effect. Oh, the common cold now renders you entirely see though, including your eyes rendering you blind.