How Bacteria Grow And Work
Author: Bill Ronin

Bacteria usually multiply by simple transverse division, a form
of asexual reproduction. Recently, conjugation has been observed
in certain species of bacteria. A curious form of reproduction
observed in bacteria is known as auto-gamy, in which
conjugation occurs between two parts of the same cell.

The rapidity with which bacteria grow is almost beyond
comprehension. A single bacillus has been known to increase to
four millions in half a day. Pasteur saw a single cell grow to
ten millions in twenty-four hours.

The growth of germs is chiefly limited by their food supply and
the destructive effects of their own excretions. Left to
themselves, even with a sufficient food supply and other
favorable conditions, bacteria are likely to die sooner or
later killed by their own excretory products.

Bacteria consume food, as do higher plants and animals. Some
bacteria require an enormous quantity of food. The energy
derived from the food manifests itself as heat, which serves
the chlorophyl-lacking plant in place of the heat derived from
the sunlight by higher plants.

The energy set free by micro-organisms manifests itself in the
heating of fermenting liquids.

The heating of green fodder in a silo and of manure in a hot
bed are examples of energy released by the activity of
bacteria. Another illustration of a similar sort is found in
the bacteria that fix nitrogen in the soil. The fixation of
nitrogen is accomplished at the expense of the consumption of a
large amount of carbohydrate, not less than two hundred pounds
of carbohydrate being required for the fixing of one pound of
nitrogen.

Bacteria, like all living organisms, require oxygen. Some
bacteria, for example those that produce lactic acid, as in the
souring of milk, obtain their oxygen directly from the air
(aerobes), whereas other bacteria (anaerobes) grow without the
presence of air or oxygen, and may even be destroyed by contact
with atmospheric oxygen. These bacteria need oxygen, but they
are so constituted that they must obtain their oxygen by
breaking up compounds containing oxygen.

Certain bacteria can live and grow either in the presence of
free oxygen or excluded from it.

The wonderful activity of microbes in breaking up and
destroying organic substances is accomplished by means of
diastases or digestive ferments, which they often produce in
great quantity. Not only bacteria but yeasts and other living
cells behave as ferments when deprived of oxygen.


About The Author: Bill Ronin enjoys writing about simple
science and health. For more information about bacteria, visit
the following url:
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