Microbiology: Even bacteria die – knowledge

Even bacteria are not immune to the extinction of species. But the evolution provides a constant replenishment.

Bacteria were the first living creatures on earth. They made the planet habitable for plants, animals and humans. There is probably 3.5 billion years ago, the first microbes appeared. A billion years later, cyanobacteria began to produce oxygen, paving the way for the many life forms that have inhabited the planet since then.

Bacteria are not only precursors of biodiversity but also the victims of constant disease change. The microbial species are constantly dying, ecologists and evolutionary researchers report in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution . Between 45,000 and 95,000 bacterial lines have disappeared for a million years. However, more and more new species are emerging and increasingly extinct.

The extinction of species in the biological microcosm is therefore considerable, but the bacteria will not disappear – in contrast to the current mbadive extinction of the macrocosm. Among animals and plants, the number of extinct species, even by human intervention, is much higher than the number of newly created species.

Because there are few bacterial fossils, geomicrobiologist Stilianos Louca of Columbia University and his colleagues are rebuilding the family tree of bacteria using the genome of the species. today and sophisticated computer algorithms. Although there is an incredible number of microbial species today, Louca says, "but that 's only a tiny fraction of the diversity that the evolution produced in the history of the Earth. " The data also show that the number of bacterial species has increased steadily, probably uninterrupted by major events such as volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts, which have allowed animals and plants to extinguish mbadively . Bacteria disappear because of increased competition from other microbes, suggests Louca