This is really a follow-up on an article that covers Miniprep protocol in detail because I made an embarrassingly careless mistake. Long story short, I claimed that bacteria undergo apoptosis, which is completely incorrect! Apoptosis is specific to multicellular organisms that possess tissues. Bacteria do not. They are unicellular and undergo a different mechanism of cell death called necrosis. Although both processes achieve the same goal – cell death, they do so by two entirely different mechanisms, and this difference is important to multicellular organisms.
See, necrosis is a messy process. A cell screams, “I, I, I just can’t take it anymore!” and then proceeds to literally burst and release all of its contents into the surrounding atmosphere without a care for how gruesome and violent it may be to its neighbors. Apoptosis, on the other hand, is an extremely regulated process during which the cell follows a specific set of instructions, which ensures that these contents aren’t just regurgitated everywhere. Rather, cell matter is packed up and then released in small balloon-like things called apoptotic bodies, which are eaten up by circulating cells like macrophages. The video below illustrates how cool apoptosis really is.
“Okay, that’s pretty awesome but come on, there’s gotta be a more functional reason than this cosmetic death crap!” Yup, certainly is. The cell contents released during necrosis can be harmful and injurious to neighboring cells. Plus, they can activate the immune system because of a suggestion that there is an injury or something bad is happening. For example, when you fall and scrape yourself, those cells on your skin are subject to acute cell injury, aka necrosis. This leads to expulsion of internal matter, which sends an SOS signal asking for help and repair. Immune system gets activated, comes barging in, along with side-effects like inflammation, in order to try to fix everything back up.
Now. Cells die all the time in your body – somewhere in the vicinity of billions of cells a day! You may have heard that most of the dust in a room is because of dead skin cells. “Uhm, yeah! Omg, totally, completely true!” Your fingers form when you are just a cute little developing fetus because specific cells in your hands die to make your digits. Otherwise, you would be born with mitten-like hands (look below). Moreover, a cell can become cancerous if it manages to avoid apoptosis.
It should be apparent by now that apoptosis is a necessary rather than a devastating process. You don’t want your immune system getting activated every time a cell follows protocol and dies for the greater good. That would be akin to dialing 911 whenever you saw a drunk eighteen year-old – an excessive response to a fairly benign act of indiscretion practiced and enjoyed world-wide. Can we please lower the drinking age now?
Multicellular organisms, a long time ago in evolutionary history, must have developed apoptosis as a way to deal with problems associated with necrosis. Although very energetically expensive, it is remarkably efficient and absolutely necessary for a tissue to function properly. Tissues, however, are not a concern for bacteria because they are unicellular, as mentioned above. Frankly, my dear, [bacteria] don’t give a damn about what happens to the bacterial cell next door. They work independently and are in fact competing for resources with their neighboring cells. Therefore, they don’t want to die, and when they do because of adverse environment, they just want to get it over with and go kaboom.
Revel in the beauty of nature around you!
because I made an embarrassing careless mistake. Long story short, I claimed that bacteria undergo apoptosis, which is completely incorrect! Apoptosis is specific to multicellular organisms that possess tissues. Bacteria are not that. They are unicellular and undergo a different mechanism of cell death called necrosis. Although both processes achieve the same goal – cell death – they do such by two entirely different mechanisms, and this difference is important to multicellular organisms.
See, necrosis is a messy process. A cell screams, “I, I, I just can’t take it anymore!” and then proceeds to literally burst and release all of its contents into the surrounding atmosphere without a care for how gruesome and ugly it may be to its neighbors. Apoptosis, on the other hand, is an extremely regulated process during which the cell follows a specific set of instructions, which ensure that these contents aren’t just regurgitated everywhere. Rather, cell matter is packed and then released in small balloon-like things called apoptotic bodies, which are eaten up by circulating cells like macrophages. No mess!
