Interesting facts about bacteria

The Israeli scientists have discovered that bacteria can communicate with each other through nanotubes. With the help of nanotubes bacteria are even able to exchange small molecules, proteins as well as some small genetic elements.

Scientists are constantly looking for new ways to make it possible to prevent certain bacteria from developing resistance to antibiotics. Many of them believe that the solution may lie in bacterium's genome and are trying different experiments with inserting foreign DNA into bacterium's genome.

The scientists have proved that stress can change the bacteria levels in the gut which can have significant impact on our immunity.

Bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics through mutations in their chromosomes and by incorporating new foreign genes, either from the surrounding environment or from other bacteria.

Bacteria often attack with toxins that are programmed to hijack or even kill host cells. In order to protect themselves from these toxins bacteria also has antitoxin that is bound to the toxin in a way that keeps the toxin inactive and therefore not harmful to bacteria. The modern science is already heavily researching possibilities to make these antitoxins inactive and use it to kill disease-causing bacteria.

Bacteria are constantly increasing their resistance to antibiotics which means that science needs to constantly develop new generations of more powerful antibiotics.

It is estimated that worldwide nearly 50% of all antibiotics are used for veterinary purposes.

Antibiotics should always been used in the correct way and only when necessary because using too much antibiotics decreases their effect and makes bacteria more resistant.

Bacteria have evolved resistance to every major class of antibiotics, and since new antibiotics are being developed very slowly it is vital to prolong the effectiveness of existing drugs to treat bacterial infections.

Bacteria are typically only a few micrometres in length but have a wide range of different shapes.

There are around one million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water.

Bacteria have become very important for many branch of the industries, for instance, they play important role in sewage treatment as well as the production of cheese and yogurt through fermentation.

Bacteria were the dominant form of life on our planet by more than 3 billion years.

The most primitive form of oxygen-breathing bacteria appeared on our planet 2.48 billion years ago.