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Bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms that can either have a bacilli, spirilli, or cocci shape and measure between 0.5-20 micrometers. They were one of the first living cells to evolve [9] and have spread to inhabit a variety of different habitats including hydrothermal vents, glacial rocks, and other organisms.
Bacterial morphological plasticity refers to changes in the shape and size that bacterial cells undergo when they encounter stressful environments. Although bacteria have evolved complex molecular strategies to maintain their shape, many are able to alter their shape as a survival strategy in response to protist predators, antibiotics, the immune response, and other threats.
Bacteria can be aerobes or anaerobes. Depending on the degree of oxygen required bacteria can fall into the following classes: facultative-anaerobes-ie aerotolerant absence or minimal oxygen required for their growth; obligate-anaerobes grow only in complete absence of oxygen; facultative aerobes-can grow either in presence or minimal oxygen
The 12 E. coli LTEE populations on June 25, 2008. [1]The E. coli long-term evolution experiment (LTEE) is an ongoing study in experimental evolution begun by Richard Lenski at the University of California, Irvine, carried on by Lenski and colleagues at Michigan State University, [2] and currently overseen by Jeffrey Barrick at the University of Texas at Austin. [3]
Microorganisms tend to have a relatively fast rate of evolution. Most microorganisms can reproduce rapidly, and bacteria are also able to freely exchange genes through conjugation, transformation and transduction, even between widely divergent species. [38]
A graph of this equation creates an S-shaped curve, which demonstrates how initial population growth is exponential due to the abundance of resources and lack of competition. When factors that limit an organisms growth are not available in constant supply to meet the growing demand, such as RNA and protein amounts in bacteria, the growth of the ...
Under optimal conditions, bacteria can grow and divide extremely rapidly, and some bacterial populations can double as quickly as every 17 minutes. [118] In cell division, two identical clone daughter cells are produced. Some bacteria, while still reproducing asexually, form more complex reproductive structures that help disperse the newly ...
Viruses that use RNA as their genetic material have rapid mutation rates, [14] which can be an advantage since these viruses will evolve constantly and rapidly, and thus evade the defensive responses of e.g. the human immune system. [15] Mutations can involve large sections of DNA becoming duplicated, usually through genetic recombination. [16]