Bacterial and other microbes are thought to evolve primarily through binary fission, meaning asexual reproduction, while also engaging in infrequent genetic exchange. Using a novel bioinformatic ...

Passed onto offspring via infection of the egg, but not sperm, these bacteria have developed a range of reproduction-manipulating mechanisms that ensure their continued prevalence. Chief among these ...

Hundreds of different species of microbes live in your gut. In the future, one of these might serve a new function: ...

Darwin's theory of natural selection provides an explanation for why organisms develop traits that help them survive and reproduce. Because of this, death is often seen as a failure rather than a ...

They rely on infecting host cells to proliferate since they lack the cellular machinery needed for autonomous survival and reproduction. Compared to viruses, bacteria are larger and have a more ...

This helps ensure that the new organisms formed as a result of sexual reproduction are also unique. Unlike eukaryotes, prokaryotes (which include bacteria) undergo a type of cell division known as ...

Jon Chase: Bacteria are a type of microorganism, each made up of just one cell. Some bacteria are harmful and cause disease, and some are useful, like the one hundred trillion bacterial cells that ...

How do bacteria, lacking a nucleus, organize and pack their genome into the cell? Supercoiling enables this but forces a different kind of transcription and translation in prokaryotes. Aa Aa Aa ...