Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: thedoc on 08/03/2016 12:50:01
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Staffan Lincoln asked the Naked Scientists:
What's the smallest bacteria ever found? How small and simple can you make a bacteria?
What do you think?
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Bacteria are single celled organisms. They come in many different shapes and sizes.
Doubt anyone could answer the question posed. Your quest might be more fruitful if the scope pertained to a class of bacteria.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria
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... How small and simple can you make a bacteria?
They couldn't be smaller than the DNA required to code for their construction.
Apparently the lower limit is ~200nm across ...
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2015/02/27/ultra-small-bacteria/
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150227/ncomms7372/full/ncomms7372.html