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 ...

New research reveals that bacteria form species and maintain cohesion through frequent DNA exchange within species. This ...

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the ...

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 ...

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 ...

For bacteria, this simply involves the cell ... since all the individuals may have the exact same traits. However, asexual reproduction does not require individuals to seek out and find a mate ...

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 ...