Scientists have identified a microscopic bacterium in the form of a “larva” adapted to live in a person’s mouth.
Known as the Neisseriaceae, this family of microbes are worm-shaped organisms found in nearly half of humanity.
And new research by a group of international scientists suggests that it will develop its own unique shape as it better fits a person’s oral cavity.
Scientists say that this family of bacteria can be a good model for studying cellular processes because of its ability to change certain anatomical shapes in response to different environments.
Although your mouth may seem like a ‘fertile’ place for microbes to thrive—it has more than 700 bacteria in it—it’s not the most pleasant place because the cells lining its inner surface is constantly coming out, making it difficult for us to salivate. organisms to follow.
The study, published Monday in Nature Communications and led by an international team of researchers, sheds light on how multicellular organisms evolve and how bacteria divide longitudinally.
The scientists used a special microscope to study the shape of the bacteria in detail to understand their cellular growth and compare them to the more classical type of rod shape.
Silvia Bolgresi, from the Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Vienna, explains what the team learned in a statement: “In addition to helping us understand how cell shape changes, the multicellular Neisseriaceae are can be useful for studying how bacteria learn. live interconnected. On top of animals, so far This is the only place it has been. And by the way, half of us carry it in our mouths.”
“Expanding the field of cell biology to include additional symbiotic isoforms and species is also critical to increasing the range of protein targets (for example, antibiotic targets) for biopharmaceutical applications,” explains Philip Weber of the University of Vienna, who worked on the study. . .
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Arabic RT
