Posted: 21:18, 23 August 2022 | Updated: 21:25, 23 August 2022
Scientists have identified a tiny caterpillar-shaped bacterium that has adapted to live inside a person’s mouth.
Known as the Neisseriaceae, this family of microbes includes caterpillar-shaped organisms found in about half of humans.
New research from an international team of scientists shows they evolved their unique shape because it better fits a human’s oral cavity.
Scientists have identified a tiny caterpillar-shaped bacterium that has adapted to live inside a person’s mouth
Known as the Neisseriaceae, this family of microbes includes caterpillar-shaped organisms found in about half of humans
The scientists said this family of bacteria can be a good model for studying cellular processes because of its ability to change specific anatomical shapes in response to different environments.
Although it may seem like your mouth is a great place for germs to thrive – there are over 700 species of bacteria in it – it’s not the most welcoming place, because the cells lining its inner surface are always being shed and the Our saliva makes it harder for organisms to stick in there.
The study published Monday in Nature Communications was led by an international team of researchers and sheds light on how multicellular organisms evolved and how bacteria divide lengthwise.
The scientists used a special microscope to study the shape of the bacteria in detail so they could understand their cellular growth and compare it to more classic rod-shaped species.
This bacterium can be a good model for studying cellular processes because of its ability to change specific anatomical shapes in response to different environments. Image: N. elongata
Although it may seem like your mouth is a great place for germs to thrive—there are over 700 species of bacteria in it—it’s not the most welcoming place. Pictured: S. muelleri
Silvia Bulgheresi from the Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Vienna explains what the team learned in a statement: “In addition to helping us understand how cell shape evolved, multicellular Neisseriaceae can be useful for studying of how bacteria learned to live attached. on the surface of animals, the only place they have been found so far.
“Half of us carry them in our mouths, by the way.”
Their study also has implications for future drug development.
Philipp Weber from the University of Vienna, who also worked on the study, explains that “extending the field of cell biology to additional morphologies and symbiotic species is also crucial for increasing the pool of protein targets (e.g. antibiotic targets) for biopharmaceutical applications”.
“We hypothesize that during evolution, through a reworking of the processes of elongation and division, the shape of the cells changed, perhaps to better thrive in the oral cavity,” Veyrier said.
“We hypothesize that during evolution, through a reworking of the processes of elongation and division, the shape of the cells changed, perhaps to better thrive in the oral cavity,” Veyrier said. Pictured above: A. filiformis
