You can find Bacillus bacteria pretty much everywhere: in the soil, on your body, in your food and in the ocean. The best characterised Bacillus is Bacillus subtilis since it has the remarkable superpower of growing sleeping baby spores. This helps the bacterium to survive hungry days. The sleeping baby spore has a thick envelope to protect the spore when it is too hot, too cold or too dry. The baby spore only wakes up and grows as a bacterium when it is warm enough and it can find food.
For a long time, bacteria were classified according to their shapes. With new technologies, we learned that the bacterial shapes help them survive in their environments and face harsh conditions. Spheres, rods, stars and screws: Learn about the different bacterial shapes.
Bacteria divide by measuring their middle and forming a ring. They then extend their cells while the ring tightens. Like this, two daughter cells grow out of one mother cell. However, the daughter cells do not always look the same…
Microbes produce nutrients and help promote plant growth to produce more bountiful crops and sustainable agriculture.
We have created a lot of toxin pollution. Now we need microbe’s help to degrade and remove toxic materials from our environment to make our planet greener.
For a bacterium to understand what is going on in the environment, it needs some sophisticated mechanisms. One of these includes destroying proteins. Here, we will look at why bacteria destroy proteins and how it helps them to survive.
When bacteria run out of nutrients, they start a process called sporulation to preserve their genetic material.
This article explores what a bacterial spore is and looks at the details of the sporulation process.
The bacteria and fungi living on cocoa beans degrade the sugars in the fruit. With this fermentation, the so-called cocobiota produces metabolites that give chocolate its delicious taste. Read about the microbes that are part of the cocobiota and why chocolate tastes the way it does.
