An unprecedented discovery
In 2009, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and the Antilles University of Guadeloupe traveled to the Mangrove Swamps of the Caribbean Sea for an ecological expedition.
Olivier Gross, a professor of marine biology in Guadeloupe, found a slender white line from a submerged leaf in a swamp of a sulfuric mangrove forest, and he couldn't be sure what it was, could it be a worm or a fungus? I saw that this white line was like a fan, but the texture was softer and the width was finer, and after observing it with a microscope, it was found that it had sulfur particles, which seemed to scatter light and emit a pearl-like pearlescent color.
Anyway, this is also a new species! The discovery of each new species is significant, and he conducted genetic analysis in his laboratory, and found that it was not a worm or a fungus, but a bacterium! And comes from the known genus Thiomargarita, a genus of bacteria.
Who can believe it's a bacterium? Because its average length reaches 1 centimeter, which is 5,000 times that of ordinary bacteria, even the largest bacteria known before are only one-fiftieth of it. This breaks with the conventional impression that bacteria must be viewed through a microscope.
But the point where it really subverts scientists' perceptions is more than just a huge head.
More bacteria than cells
Bacteria have always been the most numerous and diverse life forms on Earth. How many of them are there? What types are there? What impact has it had on the planet? This must be a problem that cannot be understood until the demise of human beings, but there is still some relatively unanimous consensus on bacteria in the scientific community.
The cellular structure of bacteria is much simpler than that of most organisms, and as microorganisms, the genetic information contained in their control centers is in a DNA cycle. Some bacteria have an extra circle of genetic material called plasmids instead of nuclei. Plasmids usually contain genes that give bacteria some advantage over other bacteria. These bacteria are thought to be used in biotechnology.
Bacteria are divided into five categories according to their basic shape: spherical, rod-shaped, spiral-shaped, chain-like or spirochete, which can exist individually or in various forms with the same or even non-homogeneous.
Some bacteria are bad, we call them pathogenic bacteria, they cause disease, but there are also good bacteria. For example, in our digestive system, in the gut, there are bacteria that are very necessary to help our bodies function in a normal way. The interesting thing about bacteria is that there are 10 times more bacterial cells in our bodies than there are in the human body. Bacteria are also important in biotechnology, where they help the body sustain itself in a healthy way.
How do new discoveries disrupt cognition?
The new bacterium found in mangrove swamps is called Thiomargarita magnifica, which literally translates to "sulfur pearls", a name that cannot be more vivid.
"Sulfur" comes from the fact that they use sulfides in water as their energy source for daily activities such as metabolism, so it cannot infect humans or other animals, and is very "self-reliant". "Pearls" are because they can scatter light and emit pearl luster.
Ordinary bacteria are so small because their body size is limited by all the compounds needed for life within their cells. But T magnifica can replicate the internal structure of many biochemical functions within cell filaments, so they overcome this limitation and become so big. Scientists believe that growing so large is a defensive strategy to avoid being eaten by many smaller creatures.
Ordinary bacteria don't have nuclei or Golgi bodies or any other organelles, and DNA just floats freely in the cell. But T. Magnifica contains not only DNA within the membrane, but also ribosomes that coexist with the genome and can even produce proteins.
postscript
Overall, T. magnifica is a prokaryote of sulfur oxide, and its discovery proves that bacteria have a higher adaptability and possibility than imagined, and that perhaps larger bacteria exist somewhere in our lives.
But the mystery about bacteria can never be solved in its entirety, and scientists are now simply figuring out T. The role of magnifica in the ecological environment of mangrove swamps.