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Bacteria Moves
Name: Jennifer
Status: Student
Age: 12
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
I need to find out how bacteria
moves for a school project. I cannot find any interent sites that
tell me how the bacterias
that secretes slime moves or a basic picture and description of how the
inside of a bacteria looks. I have to build a
model of a bacteria so would you please send me a list of sites that I
can look at.
Also I have a few questions. How long can a endospore last?
How long does it take to build a endospore? How long does bacteria live?
Replies:
You will find a lot of your questions anwered in the
Virtual Museum of Bacteria at www.bacteriamuseum.org
I can tell you that most bacteria move with a tail
that is called flagellum (flagella in plural). They
propell this tail like a whip and that makes them
move. Some bacteria indeed move by building something
like a slime trail, for instance Listeria does this,
and they use the components of the cells that they
live in to build their slime trails, because they are
parasites.
I don't know really how long a bacterial cell can
live: they normally divide and multiply, so you
measure how long a culture (the complete and extended
family of one bacterial cell) is alive, rather than a
single cell. My guess is hours or days, et most.
Spores can live much longer, up to weeks, months, or
years, because they have no metabolic activity. They
are dormant and wait for better times before they come
to life again.
THe inside of a bacterium is described in the museum.
Go to the exibits 'what are bacteria'. I don't give
you the direct way, because when you browse around
you'll find lots of interesting links that will help
you in your science project.
Have fun!
Trudy Wassenaar
Curator of the Virtual Museum of Bacteria
Click here to return to the Molecular Biology Archives
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Update: June 2012
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