Super-large bacteria that can be seen without a microscope!

Bacteria are simple organisms that are invisible to the naked eye. Generally, bacteria are at the micron level and can only be seen under a microscope.

But recently, scientists discovered a giant bacterium that can reach 2 cm in length in the mangroves of the Caribbean Islands.

Visible to the naked eye!

Let’s take a look at what it looks like!

People called this giant bacterium Thiomargarita magnifica, which means giant sulfur-loving margarita.

In the stomach of this bacterium, most of it is not a "digestive system", but mainly DNA, which is wrapped in "vesicles".

These "vesicles" take up 73% of the entire cell volume, and most of the space is used to store genetic material.

This bacterium is not only large in size, but also has an extremely large genome: it contains 11 million base pairs, including at least 11,000 genes.

The average bacterial genome contains only 4 million base pairs and less than 4,000 genes.

Microorganisms are far more complex than we imagine.

Jean-Marie Volland et al., A centimeter-long bacterium with DNA compartmentalized in membrane-bound organelles. biorxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.16.480423