Significance
Gigantism is usually a disadvantage for bacteria. Bacteria obtain their nutrients via simple diffusion process across their cell-membrane, as they lack the sophisticated nutrient uptake mechanism found in eukaryotes. A bacterium of large size would imply a lower ratio of cell membrane surface area to cell volume. This would limit the rate of uptake of nutrients to threshold levels. Large bacteria might starve easily unless they have a different backup mechanism. T. namibiensis overcomes this problem by harboring large vacuoles that can be filled up with life-supporting nitrates to sustain its life.
Read more about this topic: Thiomargarita Namibiensis
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“The hysterical find too much significance in things. The depressed find too little.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an inward dawn?—to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)