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ScienceNote:Giant Bacteria [1]

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Date: 2022-07-18  

Life size Thiomargarita

Ha! I bet that even though this is amazing, it won't get anywhere near the attention of the cute little froggies!

Back in February, scientists indentified the largest known bacteria, Thiomargarita magnifica, in a caribbean mangrove swamp.

I say indentified because it was first discovered in 2010, but is so big it was thought to be a fungus! A mighty creature is the germ

though smaller than a pachyderm indeed.

There are several large bacteria like this, and they all do it by cheating. A thousand prokayotic bacteria could fit inside one of your eukaryotic cells. The reason is our cells have active transport but the bacterium relies strictly on diffusion to move waste and metabolites. In the macro world insects rely on diffusion of oxygen from their air filled trachea and are size limited compared to us who have a sophisticated multi step organ system to move it.

All the giant bacteria are like an orange or a banana with only the volume of the skin metabolizing and the inside a biologically inactive vacoule.

They are somewhat in between eukaryotes and prokaryotes in keeping their DNA in a membranous sack instead of free floating like other bacteria. This is weird and not what anyone was expecting.

The outside of the cell lacks epibiotic bacteria growing on it. If this is because of a protein or small molecule secreted by Thiomargarita this could be medically valuable, more than just an antibiotic it could be the lead molecule to a whole new class of them.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/18/2109567/-ScienceNote-Giant-Bacteria

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