In news– Scientists have discovered the world’s largest bacteria that can be seen with the naked eye in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe in the Southern Caribbean Sea.
About world’s largest bacteri-
- The bacteria Thiomargarita magnifica is 5000 times larger than the average bacteria and it can grow up to 2 cm in length.
- In the test tube, the bacteria looks like white eyelashes and specialist 3D microscope images have proved that the entire filament is indeed a single cell.
- The researcher first spotted the strange filaments in a patch of sulphur-rich mangrove sediment in 2009.
- Techniques including electronic microscopy revealed it was a bacterial organism.
- Normally, a bacterium’s DNA floats freely in the cell but in the giant species, it is compacted in small structures surrounded by a membrane.
- T. magnifica, on the other hand, stores its genetic material in compartments, which the researchers are calling pepins, from the French for fruit seeds.
- It’s a significant revelation because until now, the packing of DNA inside a membrane-bound compartment was considered the preserve of so-called eukaryotic cells, which are the building blocks of higher organisms such as humans, other animals and plants.
Source: Economic Times
