The
Binary Bacteria
The
binary bacteria, Bacillus binarius,
is a recent discovery by Prof. Jack Hammer of the Institute for Tiny,
Tiny Things (ITTT), North Dakota. At first glance, these monocellular
lifeforms seem rather unremarkable. In addition, their reproductive
rate is quite a bit lower than that of most known bacteria, which
makes them appear like a rather tedious subject for study. However,
it was exactly this trait that intrigued Prof. Hammer. “In the
wild, low reproductive rate means low competivity for space and
ressources, and the theory of natural selection tells us that this
should lead to extinction over time. Yet we could find evidence of
binary bacterias in a vaste array of substrates.
That made me curious.”
Indeed,
further research showed that, no matter what kind of nutrients where
present (or absent) in its environment, the binary bacteria would
grow at an almost identical rate. This is very unusual for bacteria,
and by the time of this discovery, Prof. Hammer was positive that
there was something special about his latest find. The research that
followed would prove him right.
Binary
bacteria, his team
found, could be in one of two states: reproducing or producing. The
producing bacteria would absorb as much matter from their environment
as possible, and then transform it into adequate substrate for the
reproducing ones. The latter would use the ressources to produce
offspring. This simplistic division of labour might seem mundane
to most people, but it was the first time such a thing had been
observed in bacteria. “Archeabacteria are known to show this
behavior on occasion, just as single celled algea do, but so far, it
was believed that bacteria never exhibited those traits, and that
this was why multicellular lifeforms did not evolve from them. So
this recent discovery puts into question everything we know about the
evolution of multicellular life on our planet.”
In
addition to procuring easily absorbable nutrients, it seems the
producer bacteria also emit nocif substances into their environment,
keeping competitors at bay. As the colony expands, these are again
absorbed by producer bacteria and given back to reproducers as
substrate, which could explain how they were able to survive and
thrive despite their low reproductive rate.
There
is still much that we have to learn about these peculiar organisms,
and Prof. Hammer is up for the job. “When I started to see then
first signs of their strange behavior, I knew that I would spend the
rest of my life with this bacteria. It was love at first sight.”
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