Facts about Bacteria

Bacteria that form clusters are described by the prefix staphylo, such as a cluster of spherical bacterial cells would be called a staphylococcus and a cluster of rod-shaped bacterial cells would be called a staphylobacillus.

Antiseptic measures may be taken to prevent infection by bacteria, for example, swabbing skin with alcohol prior to cutting the skin during surgery or when piercing the skin with the needle of a syringe.

Bacterial bodies may be spherical, rod-shaped, or spiral/curved shaped.

Gram-negative bacteria have an outer, lipopolysaccharide-containing membrane and stain pink.

Gram-positive bacteria are more susceptible to antibiotics, while gram-negative bacteria are difficult to treat with antibiotics.

Some beaches in Prince William Sound were fertilized in an attempt to facilitate the growth of such bacteria after the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Some bacteria act as pathogens and cause tetanus, typhoid fever, pneumonia, syphilis, cholera, food-borne illness, leprosy, and tuberculosis (TB).

A unique group of bacteria, the spirochaetes, have structures similar to flagella, called axial filaments, between two membranes in the periplasmic space.

Bacteria come in a variety of different cell morphologies (shapes), including bacillus (rod-shape), coccus (spherical), spirillum (helical), and vibrio (curved bacillus).

Bacteria also provide an aid in digestion for many organisms, and are helpful in yogurt production, sewage treatment, and as sources of medicinal drugs.

The largely photosynthetic blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, were once classified as algae, but are now considered bacteria.

Motile bacteria can move about, either using flagella, bacterial gliding, or changes of buoyancy.

Certain types of bacteria are also capable of sexual reproduction through bacterial conjugation.

Bacteria contain relatively few intracellular structures compared to eukaryotes, but do contain a tightly supercoiled chromosome, ribosomes, and several other species-specific structures.

Some bacteria, including E. coli, help people and animals to digest food and help in providing vitamins.

Bacteria reproduce through asexual reproduction (binary fission) that results in cell division.

The most prominent bacterial structural characteristic is the cell wall.

Bacteria can have a single polar flagellum at one end of a cell, clusters of many flagella at one end, or flagella scattered all over the cell, as with Peritrichous.

Bacteria are often noted for their role in disease and infection in humans.

The mode of infection by bacteria includes via contact, air, food, water, and insect-borne microorganisms.

Some text in the original Wikipedia article was merged with the Nupedia article entitled Bacteria, which was also a free content encyclopedia, using a GNU Free Documentation License.

Many bacteria (such as E. coli) have two distinct modes of movement: forward movement (swimming) and tumbling.

Some bacteria are capable of forming endospores that allow them to survive extreme environmental and chemical stresses.

The hosts infected with the pathogens may be treated with antibiotics, which can be classified as bacteriocidal (kills bacterial) and bacteriostatic (slows bacterial growth and reproduction).

Bacteria are responsible for some diseases in livestock.

Ruminants, such as cattle and sheep, contain large numbers of bacteria in the rumen to help in digestion of grass by the degrading cellulose into nutrients that can be absorbed.

Bacteria are often viewed negatively, given this group's connection to diseases.

Anthrax is a deadly bacteria that infects cattle and sheep.

Bacteria were also classified based on differences in cellular chemical compounds such as fatty acids, pigments, and quinones.

Bacteria can be divided into two groups (gram-positive and gram-negative) based on differences in cell wall structure as revealed by Gram staining.

Bacteria are the most abundant of all organisms.

Hundreds of thousands of people die every year from bacterial infections.

Two organelles of eukaryotes—mitochondria and chloroplasts—are generally theorized to have been derived from endosymbiotic bacteria.

Bacterial flagella are arranged in many different ways.

Historically, bacteria, as originally studied by botanists, were classified in the same way as plants, that is, mainly by shape.

Some bacteria also contain capsules or slime layers that facilitate bacterial attachment to surfaces and biofilm formation.

Most bacteria are minute, usually only 0.5-5.0 ?m in their longest dimension, although giant bacteria like Thiomargarita namibiensis and Epulopiscium fishelsoni may grow past 0.5 mm in size.

Salmonella is a cause of intestinal infection in calves, and mastitis is an infection of cow udders caused by bacteria.

Some bacteria may attack the cells directly, while others produce substances that are toxic to the animals.

Bacteria capable of digesting the hydrocarbons in petroleum are often used to clean up oil spills.

Motile bacteria are attracted or repelled by certain stimuli, and exhibit behaviors called taxis—for instance, chemotaxis, phototaxis, mechanotaxis and magnetotaxis.

A key function of bacteria in the ecosystem is in decomposition of living matter.

Sterilization of surgical and dental instruments is done to make them sterile or pathogen-free to prevent contamination and infection by bacteria.

The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a subfield of microbiology.

Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are a group of microscopic, single-celled prokaryotes—that is, organisms characterized by a lack of a nucleus or any other membrane-bound organelles.

Sometimes bacteria cause soft rots in plants, whereby the tissue becomes a slimy mess.

When bacteria form filaments, the prefix strepto is used, such that a cluster of rod-shaped bacterial cells would be called a streptobacillus.

The first bacteria were observed by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1676 using a single-lens microscope of his own design.

Despite these harmful effects, bacteria offer innumerable, important benefits to the environment, plants, and animals, including humans.

The great antiquity of the bacteria has enabled them to evolve a great deal of genetic diversity.

Bacteria generally have cell walls, like plant and fungal cells, but with a very different composition (peptidoglycans).

The myxobacteria move only when on solid surfaces, unlike E. coli, which is motile in liquid or solid media.

Gram-positive bacteria lack this covering, but possess a cell wall containing a thick peptidoglycan (called Murein in older sources) layer and teichoic acids; they stain purple.

Beyond organic matter, bacteria can also degrade metal cyanides from industrial sites, help in cleaning up nuclear waste, recover metal from low-grade ores, and degrade some pesticides.

The ability of bacteria to degrade a variety of organic compounds is remarkable.

Using biotechnology techniques, bacteria can be bioengineered for the production of therapeutic drugs, such as insulin, or for the bioremediation of toxic wastes.

Some bacterial infections can spread throughout the host's body and become systemic.

Sanitizers and disinfectants are used to kill bacteria or other pathogens to prevent contamination and risk of infection.

Many bacteria contain other extracellular structures such as flagella, fimbriae, and pili, which are used respectively for motility (movement), attachment, and conjugation (transmission of DNA between bacterial cells by contact other than fusion).

Conjugation increases the genetic variability of bacterial populations and facilitates the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria, often in combination with yeasts and molds, are used in the preparation of fermented foods such as cheese, pickles, soy sauce, sauerkraut, vinegar, wine, and yogurt.

Bacterial population growth is thus sometimes said to follow an approximate exponential growth phase.

Sepsis, a systemic infectious syndrome characterized by shock and massive vasodilation, or localized infection, can be caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, or many gram-negative bacteria.

Ruminants rely on the bacteria, since they lack these essential digestive enzymes themselves.

The decomposition of cellulose, which is one of the most abundant constituents of plant tissues, is mainly brought about by aerobic bacteria that belong to the genus Cytophaga.

Bacteria are the most numerous organisms on earth and are widely distributed on land and in the ocean, as well as carried by air currents from one place to another.

The term "bacteria" has been variously applied to all prokaryotes, or to a major group of them exclusive of the anaerobic archaebacteria.

Fossil bacteria have been found in deposits in present-day Australia that are estimated to be 3.5 billion years old.