From sticks to balls

Hello everyone ,
Today I am here with  an another current news in Microbiology

From sticks to balls: The shape of bacteria is evolving to better adapt to the throat

You all now know that the E.coli is a rod and S.aureus is coccus, you must have never heard of morphology of  S.aureus as a rod, but as per the current research mainly discussed in this topic the observation is different

Do the various shapes of bacteria at the microscopic level also contribute to their survival? Does a spherical bacterium (coccus) have a better chance of infecting its host than its stick-shaped neighbor (bacillus)?

Analysis of the evolution of the pathogenic bacteria that live in the throat suggests that the shape of these bacteria has changed over time, shifting from bacillus to coccus. It was demonstrate that this change may have occurred to make the bacteria better at slipping through the defenses of their host's immune system.The pathogens responsible for these infections have evolved in order to thwart immune defenses. 

Highly adapted to the ecological niche of nasal passages, Neisseria meningitidis and Moraxella catharralis can sometimes cause severe infections in humans. Genetic analysis of the ancestors of these bacteria pinpointed a key gene: yacF. The absence of this gene makes it possible for the shape of these bacteria to evolve. The N. meningitidis and M. catharralis found today in humans are spherical and missing the yacF gene.The bacteria's changing shapes from  sticks to spheres leads to change in composition of certain molecules on their surface such as peptidoglycans which  play an important role in the way the immune system recognizes bacteria.

We believed that the shape of Bacteria are constant  and are mainly used as the preliminary and important for bacterial classification . Now many questions are on rise that how this all occurs  but the current research now makes us to think.

This research demonstrates that the environment in which the bacteria evolve has an impact on their morphology. These are exciting results because we were able to identify the same change in two different species—and therefore its impact could be a key aspect in the specific way these pathogens are adapting to the human nasopharynx."

By broadening our understanding of the evolution of bacteria, the researchers hope to design new strategies for avoiding severe infections. This new knowledge about microbes that change shape from generation to generation could lead to tools for preventing and treating such infections.

Thank You 

with love

-Dixy