In short, while bacteria may not have “sex lives” in the way humans do, their frequent DNA exchanges play a crucial role in keeping their species distinct and thriving. This discovery opens up ...

When Kostas Konstantinidis proved that many bacteria—like plants and animals—are organized into species, he upended a long-held scientific belief. Scientists widely believed that bacteria, due to ...

Passed onto offspring via infection of the egg, but not sperm, these bacteria have developed a range of reproduction-manipulating mechanisms that ensure their continued prevalence. Chief among these ...

Indeed, it was long thought that bacteria and other organisms that reproduce via binary fission do not age at all. This was because binary fission was thought to be a symmetrical division ...

Some block the bacteria's reproduction so they die without multiplying and others stop the bacteria's internal processes and they do all of this without harming your own cells. But since bacteria ...