3 ms·
I guess being long and thin they don't violate the square/cube laws that normally keep bacteria from getting too big given that they have to use their outer wal
by Symmetry 4y ago
I guess being long and thin they don't violate the square/cube laws that normally keep bacteria from getting too big given that they have to use their outer walls rather than mitochondria to respirate. Still very impressive.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoSome larger bacteria use a water sac inside to push all the living components close to the surface. So osmosis can feed them oxygen. I wonder if this one does that?
- efavdb 4y agoI happened to write a paper on just this issue (shameless plug)! You're right: With a sphere, the metabolic consumption grows like R^3 but nutrient capture goes like the surface area, which scales like R^2. The result is a max radius R where nutrient in can support the consumption. However, for long thin object, both the volume and area grow like L, the length. The result is that -- rather than plateauing to a finite limit -- a long thin bacterium can actually maintain exponential growth indefinitely! and that is what is actually seen in the lab. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.0674.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.0674.pdf
- ogogmad 4y agoGiven that they're so thin, can they be seen by the naked eye? I'm thinking of a spider's web.
- heavyset_go 4y agoThis study says that the organelles are bound to the cell membrane: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423v1....