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Scientists have identified a macroscopic species of bacteria in the waters of a Caribbean mangrove swamp that changes the size of putative bacteria. The new species, Thiomargarita magnifica, meaning “sulphur pearl,” is a giant thin white filament visible to the naked eye.
The bacterium also has a complex membrane organization and a predictable life cycle, reports Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. Details on the megabacterium were published in Science this week.
“These bacteria are about 5,000 times larger than most bacteria,” says marine biologist and lead author Jean-Marie Volland in a statement. “To put things in perspective, for us humans, meeting another human being the size of Mount Everest is equivalent.”
Scientists have not yet been able to grow the bacteria in laboratory culture. But they still made discoveries about the bacteria. Inside the huge cell, they found an unusual structure. It has a large central compartment or vacuole. Vacuoles are often generalized, multifunctional spaces within cells that contain fluids, waste, or accumulations of enzymes. However, the vacuole in these cells is odd in that it runs the entire length of the cell and occupies most of the cell’s volume, reports Christina Larson for the Associated Press. “Acquiring this large central vacuole definitely helps a cell circumvent physical limitations…how big a cell can be,” biologist Manuel Campos of France’s National Center for Scientific Research tells the Associated Press. He was not involved in the study.
The bacterium, which is roughly the shape and size of an eyelash, was first discovered in 2009 in the mangrove swamps of Guadeloupe, an island in the Lesser Antilles. The bacteria appeared as long, translucent, inch-long threads on decaying leaf material in the water, Gizmodo reports. Because of the bacterium’s size, scientists initially thought the white strands were eukaryotes.
After the researchers brought samples back to the lab and looked at them under a microscope, they found that T. magnifica had no nuclei or mitochondria, organelles typically found in eukaryotic cells. Instead, the team found grains of sulfur inside, according to Gizmodo. The scientists further analyzed the genome of the 12 million base pair bacterium and found that it reproduces by narrowing one end before the cell divides in two.
Bacteria are generally thought of as “sacks full of enzymes” in which there is no nucleus, Golgi apparatus or other organelles and the DNA just floats freely throughout the cell. However, T. magnifica not only contains DNA in a membrane, but also ribosomes — which make proteins — that coexist with the genome.
While researchers aren’t sure why T. magnifica is so large. According to the Associated Press, it could be an adaptation to prevent it from being eaten by smaller organisms. The team plans to explore the role the bacterium plays in the mangrove ecosystem.
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