Bacteria Have 'Body Clocks' (Circadian Rhythm)

[EnolaGaia]

In First-of-Its-Kind Discovery, Scientists Confirm Bacteria Have a 24-Hour Body Clock

In a first-of-its-kind discovery, scientists have found that a species of non-photosynthetic bacteria are regulated by the same circadian rhythms that hold sway over so many other life-forms.

In humans, our circadian rhythms act as a kind of biological clock in our cells, controlling virtually all the processes in our bodies, influencing when we sleep and rise, plus the functioning of our metabolism, and cognitive processes.

This internal time-keeping, which revolves around a 24-hour cycle, is driven by our circadian clock, and the same core phenomenon has been observed in many other kinds of organisms as well, including animals, plants, and fungi.

For a long time, however, it's been unclear whether bacteria at large are also subject to the dictates of circadian rhythms.

The phenomenon has been demonstrated in photosynthetic bacteria, which use light to make chemical energy, but as for whether other kinds of bacteria also possess circadian clocks has long remained a mystery – until now.

"We've found for the first time that non-photosynthetic bacteria can tell the time," explains chronobiologist Martha Merrow from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

"They adapt their molecular workings to the time of day by reading the cycles in the light or in the temperature environment." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/scient...our-body-clock-in-first-of-its-kind-discovery

 

[Comfortably Numb]

"We've found for the first time that non-photosynthetic bacteria can tell the time," explains chronobiologist Martha Merrow from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich".

How do they know when the clocks go back or forward...

 

[Bad Bungle]

Has anyone proposed why an organism with a life cycle measurable in hours would evolve with a circadian rhythm ?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Has anyone proposed why an organism with a life cycle measurable in hours would evolve with a circadian rhythm ?

The average lifespan of an individual bacterium is measured in minutes or hours, but there are bacteria which can survive for days, weeks, and even years.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Has anyone proposed why an organism with a life cycle measurable in hours would evolve with a circadian rhythm ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacte...key,of cyanobacteria in rhythmic environments.

http://casas-lab.irbi.univ-tours.fr/Circadian rhythms in insects.pdf

 

[Bad Bungle]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_circadian_rhythm#:~:text=In these bacteria, three key,of cyanobacteria in rhythmic environments.

http://casas-lab.irbi.univ-tours.fr/Circadian rhythms in insects.pdf

It was precisely in a Microbiology class in 1985 when the question of a circadian rhythm in prokaryotes came up. I was told that (a) the zeitgeber mechanism was in the cell nucleus (which bacteria don't have) and (b) there was no point in having an endogenous rhythm that's longer than your lifespan. Little did I know that approx 24 hours later this would all apparently become obsolete. I sort of understand the need for cycles in photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacter is the old 'blue/green algae") that require light, but not in non photosynthetic micro-organisms.
Still, live and learn.