bacteria Q

[rvukanti]

Why (not how) does a bacterial cell divide?

 

Is cell division obligatory for bacteria?

[Skye]

Do you mean why as in what causes a bacteria to divide, or as in what purpose does division serve for bacteria?

[rvukanti]

Yes, why does a bacterium divide...and what causes it to divide? is it just to propagate or to reproduce? I mean in order to pass its genetic information to daughter cells...or it can't grow beyond a point or its DNA replication is a continuous process????

[ashennell]

if bacteria didn't divide then you would only have 1 bacteria. the first one. Soon as it got killed by something in the environment - no more bacteria. not a good evolution strategy.

 

It's like putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

So bacteria divide because it makes evolutionary sense to.

[Mokele]

or it can't grow beyond a point

 

That's one reason, yes. Imagine if you double the length of a bacteria, while keeping all proportions the same. That means the surface area would go up by four, and the volume by 8. Because it gets all nutrients (and exchanges all waste) through the surface, you have less surface area per unit volume as the size increases, until the surface area can no longer serve the needs of the cell.

 

Mokele