It is worth noting that it is a discovery. big thiomargarita (pseudo-bacteria) has taken scientists by surprise. And all because, according to models of cellular metabolism, bacteria should not reach such sizes. Previously, scientists had suggested that the upper limit of possible size was about 50 times smaller than the new species.

As if a man were rising from Mount Everest,
Said Jean-Marie Wolland, a scientist at Lawrence National Laboratory in Berkeley and co-author of the study.

Interesting facts about the detected bacteria

Thiomargarita magnifica contains three times more genes than most other bacteria. In addition, it has a very unusual structure: in bacteria, as a rule, DNA moves freely inside the cell, but its DNA is attached to the inner membranes.

Now researchers need to figure out how bacteria evolved to such large sizes. Presumably in this way, they adapted to protect themselves from predators by becoming hundreds or even thousands of times larger than their natural enemies.

Bacteria Thiomargarita magnifica / Science of Photography

However, such large sizes have their drawbacks. For example, Thiomargarita magnifica has lost some of the essential benefits of bacteria, including its unique ability to move around and colonize new niches. Leaving the microscopic world, these bacteria changed the way they interacted with the environment.

Other discoveries in the bacterial world

Professor Sokhin Choi of Binghamton University has been working with bacteria for many years, but the subject of his research and experiments is rather unusual. He is working to create biopiles that generate electricity due to the interaction of microorganisms. He has managed to achieve very interesting results and will not stop.

Together with his colleagues, Sokhin Choi created a fully autonomous biopile for several weeks. It uses three types of bacteria, each located in separate compartments on top of each other. We wrote more about this discovery in our article.