2023-11-22 11:25:42
Microscopic image of E. Coli bacteria. – NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH.
MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The bacteria are capable of creating something like memories about when to form infection and antibiotic resistance strategies, or swarms to cluster on a surface.
The discovery, by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, It relates to a common chemical element that bacterial cells can use to form and pass on these memories to their progeny over subsequent generations.
The research, which is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), discovered that the bacteria E. coli uses iron levels as a way to store information about different behaviors that can then be activated in response to certain stimuli.
Scientists had previously observed that bacteria that have prior swarming experience (moving over a surface as a collective using flagella) improve subsequent swarming performance. The research team set out to find out why. Bacteria do not have neurons, synapses or nervous system, so the memories are not like those of blowing out candles at a children’s birthday party. They are more like information stored on a computer.
“Bacteria don’t have brainsbut they can gather information from their environment, and if they have encountered that environment frequently, they can store that information and quickly access it later for their benefit,” he said it’s a statement Souvik Bhattacharyya, lead author and fellow scientist in the Department of Molecular Biosciences.
It all comes back to iron, one of the most abundant elements on Earth. Single and floating bacteria have different levels of iron. The scientists observed that bacterial cells with lower levels of iron were better swarmers. In contrast, bacteria that formed biofilms, dense, sticky layers of bacteria on solid surfaces, had high levels of iron in their cells. Bacteria with tolerance to antibiotics also had balanced levels of iron. These iron memories persist for at least four generations and disappear in the seventh generation.
“Before there was oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, early cellular life used iron for many cellular processes. Iron is not only essential in the origin of life on Earth, but also in the evolution of life,” Bhattacharyya said. “It makes sense that cells would use it this way.”
Researchers theorize that when iron levels are low, bacterial memories are activated to form a fast-moving migratory swarm in search of iron in the environment. When iron levels are high, memories indicate that this environment is a good place to stay and form a biofilm.
“Iron levels are definitely a target for therapeutics because iron is an important factor in virulence,” Bhattacharyya said. “Ultimately, the more we know about the behavior of bacteria, the easier it will be to fight them.”
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