rvukanti Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 Why (not how) does a bacterial cell divide? Is cell division obligatory for bacteria? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 Do you mean why as in what causes a bacteria to divide, or as in what purpose does division serve for bacteria? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvukanti Posted September 26, 2005 Author Share Posted September 26, 2005 Yes, why does a bacterium divide...and what causes it to divide? is it just to propagate or to reproduce? I mean in order to pass its genetic information to daughter cells...or it can't grow beyond a point or its DNA replication is a continuous process???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashennell Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 if bacteria didn't divide then you would only have 1 bacteria. the first one. Soon as it got killed by something in the environment - no more bacteria. not a good evolution strategy. It's like putting all your eggs in one basket. So bacteria divide because it makes evolutionary sense to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokele Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 or it can't grow beyond a point That's one reason, yes. Imagine if you double the length of a bacteria, while keeping all proportions the same. That means the surface area would go up by four, and the volume by 8. Because it gets all nutrients (and exchanges all waste) through the surface, you have less surface area per unit volume as the size increases, until the surface area can no longer serve the needs of the cell. Mokele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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