Bacteria Can Have a ‘Sense of Smell’

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816095719.htm
                According to this article, scientists have now revealed that bacteria actually has a sense of smell of its own. For the first time, marine microbiologists discovered that bacteria have a molecular “nose”, which is able “to detect airborne, smell-producing chemicals such as ammonia.” Bacteria are capable of this sense of smell that they are able to sense ammonia produced by rival bacteria present in the environment. Research also shows that bacteria respond to this smell by producing a biofilm, which is when individual bacteria joins together to establish an area to push out any potential competitors. “Biofilm is a major cause of infection medical implants such as heart halves, artificial hips, and even breast implants”, yet it also has it’s advantages such as when certain biofilm grows well on petroleum oil and can be used to clean up an oil spill. The fact that cells form slime in contact with ammonia has important implications to understanding how biofilm are formed. A later on discovery shows that bacteria are capable of four of the five sense: sight, touch, taste, or smell. “ The sense of smell has been observed in many creatures, even yeast and slime mould, but our work shows for the first time that a sense of smell even exists in lowly bacteria,” says Professor Grant Burgess.


                This article relates to science/biology concepts since it talks about how bacteria can have a sense of smell, and explains how it‘s possible. We learn the concept “biofilm” in this article, and it is basically a thin layer of cells of a bacterium held together by the material it produces. It also tells us the disadvantages and advantages of biofilm. The article also shows how complex bacteria are and their ways to communicate with each other.

                This information was put in the newspaper because we are concerned about how bacteria are able to communicate with each other by their sense of smell. It is interesting to read about it. We care about this topic because it says that bacterial infections have killed millions of people every year. Since bacterium is a single-celled organism, not a multi-cellular organism like us, we didn’t expect bacteria to be complex.