Mark Rothon <unbar at rothon.demon.co.uk> wrote in article
<01bc18db$7ed4a1e0$4e93dec2 at rothon.demon.co.uk>...
> I am an undergrad giving a talk on "why are bacteria small?". Can anyone
> help by giving me any information or tell me where to look.
> P.S. relative references would be useful, Many thanks. :-)
Bacteria are small because of the cell volume versus cell surface area
(membrane area). Eukaryotic cells have a number of membrane bound and
other organelles to carry out respiration, energy transfer (electron
cascade, proton motive force, ATP production), nutrient assimilation, waste
disposal, etc., etc. etc.
Prokaryotes (bacteria, archaea, etc.) do not have any organelles. The
outer membrane has to do it all. Surface area can be increased by using
rod, spiral, and helix geometries but it is still very limiting.
--
Daedalus
http://www.netgsi.com/users/tandric/tandric at netgsi.comDaedalus-1 at msn.com
Friends do not let friends buy squat from Logitech!
