Are bacteria considered living or nonliving? Why?
1 Answer
Bacteria are living organisms .Why ?
Lets look at what categorises a living organism.
Living organisms have seven characteristics
Able to carry out homeostasis .
Being composed of one or more cells.
Being able to carry out metabolism(both catabolism and anabolism).
Able to carry out growth.
Able to adapt to their environment.
Respond to stimuli.
Reproduction.
Can bacteria reproduce ?Yes they can,they do asexually via binary fission.
Can bacteria carry out metabolism?Yes they can.Examples include cyanobacteria carrying out photosynthesis and many bacteria carry out aerobic/anaerobic respiration.
Bacteria are unicellular.
Yes,bacteria do grow ,they must before they can carry out binary fission.
Do bacteria respond to stimuli ?Yes,bacteria such as E.Coli have been known to "swim" in chemical gradients towards attractants such as glucose or away from repellants such as ethanol.
We have a word for this phenomena ,chemotaxis.
Can bacteria adapt to their environment ?Yes,they can.Bacteria have organelles such as pili to carry out conjugation which helps transfer alleles for antibiotic resistance and a shorter pili called fimbriae which helps them attach to surfaces.
Do bacteria cary out homeostasis.Yes,they do and they have organelles such as a cell membrane and cell wall to assist them in this.Antibiotics such as penicillin work by preventing the formation of cell walls,so bacteria can no longer maintain homeostasis.
