Bacteria are often maligned as the causes of human and animal disease. However that is true only for some bacteria. In fact bacteria are the basis for life. Without them no life at all would have been possible on our planet. Bacteria is a plural word. The singular for this word is “bacterium. They have one chromosome of double-stranded DNA in a ring and most are friendly. Only a few cause disease. But then what life form is there including plants and animals, a few of whom do not cause problems. Bacteria are life because they can multiply by duplication. However, they do not multiply by mating as higher life forms do. In the process, occasionally there are genetic mutations that are preserved, creating new genes. In higher life forms most chance mutations are eliminated by matching between male and female genes during multiplications.
Thus bacteria are at the foundation of creation of life
forms. This is where creation of new life forms begins.The genes of more advanced creatures including humans are identical to
bacterial genes and that is the source from which they have been derived.
Bacteria can transfer their genes to other life forms through a variety of
natural processes. Bacterial genes are enclosed in a cell wall but within
that wall they do not have a protective nucleus to protect the genes further
thus making the modification of bacterial genes much easier than the genes in
cells of higher life forms. A type of bacteria called cynobacteria, the
basic cell type of plants is responsible for producing oxygen. Without them
oxygen breathing life forms would not have been possible.
Although bacteria do not carry out sexual multiplication
they do appear to enjoy sex of a different kind and are in fact quite promiscuous. They have appendages called
pilli. This hollow, hair like structures made of protein allow bacteria to
attach to other cells. A specialized pilus, the sex pilus, allows the transfer
of plasmid DNA from one bacterial cell to another. They must enjoy the process, otherwise why would they do it? That is how they transfer
antibiotic immunity from one bacteria to another. Bacteria can acquire new
genes by taking up DNA molecules (e.g., a plasmid) from their surroundings or
from other bacteria.
Bacteria respond to variations in their environment by
altering their gene expression pattern;
thus, they express different enzymes depending on the carbon sources and other
nutrients available to them as well as toxins in the environment that can
damage them. Bacterial gene regulation is
extremely efficient and the bacterial genome is highly organized. Bacteria
appear to adopt perfectly to a variety of environments, and they are ready
to respond to whatever environmental changes they encounter by employing
elegant and complex regulatory mechanisms.Higher life forms that emerge from the synthesis of such bacteria thus emerge already adopted to the environment, even that of new planets.
A modern theory of creation called Panspermia postulates
that life has arrived on earth by a transfer of bacteria from outer space. How
this transfer takes place and how bacterial genes set in motion the creation of
life forms is discussed in this blog. The particular adaptation and postulates
of this blog have been given the name pansmeria.
To read more about the role bacteria play in life and its creation check out an older post of this blog at http://alienaccount.blogspot.in/2006/09/microbes-beginning-of-life.html
On a philosophical view of the pain that bacteria cause see:
http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/07/bacteria-source-of-life-and-pain.html
On a philosophical view of the pain that bacteria cause see:
http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/07/bacteria-source-of-life-and-pain.html
