Earth’s life depends on the networks of ocean bacteria

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Ponchlorococcus The bacteria are so small that you will have to arrange about a thousand of them to match the thickness of the human miniature. The ocean is visible to them: germs are likely the most insobous The photosynthetic organism on the planet and they create a significant part – from 10 to 20 percent – from the oxygen of the atmosphere. This means that the Earth’s life depends on approximately 3 October (or 3 × 10²⁷) Small individual cells that break up.

Biologists have once thought of these organisms as isolated wanderers, resembling unattainable vastness. But Ponchlorococcus The population may be more related than anyone could imagine. They can make conversations at wide distances, not only to fill the ocean with envelopes with information and nutrients, but also to connect what we thought of as their private, interior spaces with the interior of other cells.

At the University of Cordoba in Spain, not long ago, biologists who clicked images of cyanobacteria under a microscope saw a cell that was growing a long thin tube and grabbed its neighbor. The image made them sit down. They knew that this was not Fluk.

“We realized that cyanobacteria were interconnected,” said Maria del Carmen Munos-MarinA microbiologist there. There were links between Ponchlorococcus cells and also with another bacterium called Synechococcus, which often lives nearby. In the images, silver bridges connect three, four, and sometimes 10 or more cells.

Munos-Marin had an idea of ​​the identity of these mysterious structures. After a battery of tests, she and her colleagues Has recently been reported that these bridges are bacterial nanotubes. First observed in a common laboratory bacterium only 14 years ago, bacterial nanotubes are structures made of cell membrane that allow nutrients and resources to flow between two or more cells.

The structures have been a source of charm and disputes In the last decade, as microbiologists have worked to understand what makes them form and what exactly travels among these network cells. The images of the Munoos-Marin laboratory marked the first time when these structures are seen in cyanobacteria responsible for such a large part of the photosynthesis on Earth.

They challenge the basic ideas for bacteria, raising questions such as: How much does Ponchlorococcus Share the cells around it? And does it really make sense to think about other bacteria as unicellular?

Tubular

Many bacteria have active social lifeS Some make Pili, Hairlike Grounds of Protein, which connect two cells to allow them to exchange DNA. Some form dense plaques together, known as biofilmsS And many radiate Small bubbles known as vesicles which contain DNA, RNA or other chemicals, such as messages in a bottle of any cell to capture them.

It is the Muñoz-Mañoz-Marí vizicles and its possessions, including Jose Manuel Garcia-Fernandez, a micrologist at the University of Cordoba and a student student. Eliza Angul-Kanovisthey were looking for as they increased Ponchlorococcus and Synechococcus In a dish. When they saw what they suspected they were nanotubi, it was a surprise.