Bacteria are Powerful

Bacteria are single celled prokaryotes without any true organelles, no nucleus, and not even linear DNA. Yet these simple organisms are often underestimated. In our own bodies, bacteria greatly outnumber our cells. Many of these bacteria are essential to our survival. Other bacteria can kill us. One of the greatest threats bacteria poses is their ability to evolve very quickly. Bacteria are able to share their DNA through transposition. There are three types of transposition: transformation, transduction, and conjugation. Transformation is when bacteria drop their DNA, and other bacteria pick it up and incorporate it into their DNA. Using conjugation, bacteria can directly insert their DNA into another bacteria. Transduction allows bacteria to give their DNA to a virus, which then infects another bacteria and gives the DNA. This allows bacteria to very quickly evolve. If one bacteria gains a helpful mutation, they will quickly share that mutation with all of the other bacteria in the vicinity. This ability makes bacteria incredibly dangerous when it comes to antibiotics. The moment one bacteria evolves to gain resistance to an antibiotic, it shares its DNA with many other bacteria, causing all of them to gain resistance. Unfortunately, the humans are losing the arms race against bacteria. Dangerous bacteria are evolving faster than we can create new antibiotics. In addition to evolving fast, bacteria are actually able to communicate with each other using quorum sensing. Bacteria interact with each other by sending signals, and are able to react to environmental changes as well. Some bacteria communicate with each other, deactivating many genes until a certain environmental standard is reached. For instance, some bacteria may remain dormant until a certain population is reached. When this threshold is surpassed, the bacteria all simultaneously activate their genes and attack. They lie in wait until they have the numbers to assure victory before sending chemical signals and attacking. Scientists are working on manipulating bacteria using quorum sensing by blocking the chemical receptors, preventing the bacteria from communicating and attacking.