Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Bacteria communities use brainlike bursts of electricity to communicate

#1
C C Offline
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...mmunicate/

EXCERPT: [...] “People were treating bacteria as … solitary organisms that live by themselves,” said Gürol Süel, a biophysicist at the University of California, San Diego. “In fact, most bacteria in nature appear to reside in very dense communities.”

The preferred form of community for bacteria seems to be the biofilm. On teeth, on pipes, on rocks and in the ocean, microbes glom together by the billions and build sticky organic superstructures around themselves. In these films, bacteria can divide labor [...] As in all communities, cohabiting bacteria need ways to exchange messages. Biologists have known for decades that bacteria can use chemical cues to coordinate their behavior. [...] But Süel and other scientists are now finding that bacteria in biofilms can also talk to one another electrically. Biofilms appear to use electrically charged particles to organize and synchronize activities across large expanses. This electrical exchange has proved so powerful that biofilms even use it to recruit new bacteria from their surroundings, and to negotiate with neighboring biofilms for their mutual well-being. [...] “We’re learning about an entirely new mode of communication.”

https://www.quantamagazine.org/bacteria-...e-20170905

EXCERPT: Despite the parallels to neural activity, Süel emphasizes that biofilms are not just like brains. Neural signals, which rely on fast-acting sodium channels in addition to the potassium channels, can zip along at more than 100 meters per second — a speed that is critical for enabling animals to engage in sophisticated, rapid-motion behaviors such as hunting. The potassium waves in Bacillus spread at the comparatively tortoise-like rate of a few millimeters per hour. “Basically, we’re observing a primitive form of action potential in these biofilms,” Süel said. “From a mathematical perspective they’re both exactly the same. It’s just that one is much faster.”

- - -
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Article Will future colonists on Moon & Mars develop new accents? ("The Expanse" communities) C C 0 28 Feb 5, 2024 11:02 PM
Last Post: C C
  Why are cities such left-wing communities? C C 0 80 Oct 7, 2023 04:40 PM
Last Post: C C
  Article Woman talks about her childhood in 1800s Los Angelas (old-timey communities) C C 0 70 Jul 19, 2023 12:38 PM
Last Post: C C
  Indigenous, last of his tribe 'man of the hole' dies in Brazil (extinct communities) C C 1 103 Aug 30, 2022 08:07 PM
Last Post: Zinjanthropos
  Sri Lanka is in crisis — and so are its scientists (doomed communities) C C 0 68 Jul 18, 2022 06:41 PM
Last Post: C C
  Haunting images of 'zombie' shark & decaying aquarium animals (abandoned communities) C C 1 66 Mar 3, 2022 05:11 PM
Last Post: Zinjanthropos
  Military towns are the most racially integrated places in U.S. (military communities) C C 1 96 Feb 10, 2022 03:28 AM
Last Post: Syne
  Teaching tolerance in schools cannot avoid controversy (educational & UK communities) C C 6 206 Feb 8, 2022 09:26 PM
Last Post: confused2
  Indigenous communities are the best guardians of Latin America’s forests C C 1 112 Oct 1, 2021 03:51 PM
Last Post: C C
  "End is nigh" community blooms after IPCC + Bird communities menaced by urbanization C C 0 64 Aug 25, 2021 03:09 PM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)