Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
At death phase (decline phase), bacteria die. This could be caused by lack of nutrients, environmental temperature above or below the tolerance band for the species, or other injurious conditions. This basic batch culture growth model draws out and emphasizes aspects of bacterial growth which may differ from the growth of macrofauna.
However, many bacterial species can transfer DNA between individual cells by a horizontal gene transfer process referred to as natural transformation. [56] Some species form extraordinarily resilient spores, but for bacteria this is a mechanism for survival, not reproduction. Under optimal conditions bacteria can grow extremely rapidly and ...
Bacteria play a vital role in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients and the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process.
Bacterial cell division happens through binary fission or through budding. The divisome is a protein complex in bacteria that is responsible for cell division, constriction of inner and outer membranes during division, and remodeling of the peptidoglycan cell wall at the division site.
Run-and-tumble motion is a movement pattern exhibited by certain bacteria and other microscopic agents. It consists of an alternating sequence of "runs" and "tumbles": during a run, the agent propels itself in a fixed (or slowly varying) direction, and during a tumble, it remains stationary while it reorients itself in preparation for the next run.
This process is heavily driven by the natural selection processes that happen during antibiotic use or misuse. [28] Over time, most of the strains of bacteria and infections present will be the type resistant to the antimicrobial agent being used to treat them, making this agent now ineffective to defeat most microbes.
As bacterial and viral infections can both cause the same kinds of symptoms, it can be difficult to distinguish which is the cause of a specific infection. [11] Distinguishing the two is important, since viral infections cannot be cured by antibiotics whereas bacterial infections can.
Bacteria can survive under diverse environmental conditions and in order to overcome these adverse and changing conditions, bacteria must sense the changes and mount appropriate responses in gene expression and protein activity. The stress response in bacteria involves a complex network of elements that counteracts the external stimulus.