prokaryoyic cell

[Sinead Ryan]

At a recent lecture my lecturer said that prokaryotic cells contain a spore. I have looked in many books andhave found o mention of such a spore.
Could any one tellme if it does exist and what its function is??
Thanks 🙂
Sinead

[canalon]

quote Sinead Ryan:

At a recent lecture my lecturer said that prokaryotic cells contain a spore. I have looked in many books andhave found o mention of such a spore.
Could any one tellme if it does exist and what its function is??
Thanks 🙂
Sinead

Not all bacteria (prokaryotic cells) are spore forming. So it is not a trait shared by all cells. The highly studied Escherichia coli is not spore forming, but the bacteria of the genus Bacillus are.

Spores are a special kind of bacterial offspring with a highly dehydrated and condensed content, and special cell walls produced in a special form of mitosis, that help bacteria to survive hostile environment. It is a resistant form of the cell, that given good condition will form new “normal cells” to start new bacterial colony.

HTH

Patrick

[DevGrp]

Some bacteria (a prokaryote) can form spores examples include Bacillus, Clostridium and Anthrax
http://www.microbe.org/microbes/spores.asp

Spores are a way that bacteria can survive in a dormant form for long periods of time.

Some spores can survive for years. Thats why the British govenment had to spend millions in the 1990s cleaning a scotish island after a WW2 germ warfare experiment left it covered in Anthrax spores.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1457035.stm

[Sinead Ryan]

So a spore in bateria is kinda like a seed???

[canalon]

quote :

So a spore in bateria is kinda like a seed???

Yes and No.
Seeds are embryo, they have a different genetic material from the parent plant. Spores are just a highly resistant backup of the bacteria, genetically identical to its parent. But, they serve the same purpose: survival and dissemination of the genome.

Patrick

[Sinead Ryan]

thats great. Thanks a million!! one more thing when I’m here ‘centrasome’ in an animal cell serves what purpose??

[mith]

Do you mean centrosome?

[Sinead Ryan]

yea i did! Sorry

[canalon]

For a quick overview over the centrosome you could read this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=mboc4.section.2995

And for this kind of research a good free site is:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/

Search in “Books” for “whatever your looking at”. It even suggest some keywords in case of typo 🙄 After that you just have to select which book you want to see (try the more general first…) and here is your answer. Complete and up-to date.

HTH

Patrick

[JorgeLobo]

Bacterial spores are not like seeds. They are survival rather than reproductive structures.

[Author]

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