World’s largest bacterium found in the Caribbean

Scientists have discovered the world’s largest bacterium in a Caribbean mangrove swamp

Scientists have, for the first time, discovered the world's largest bacterium in a mangrove swamp in the Caribbean. Most bacteria are impossible to see with the human eye since they are microscopic. But, the bacterium found here is so big that it can be seen with the naked eye. The thin white filament, almost the dimensions of a human eyelash, is "by far the largest bacterium known to date," said Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Olivier Gros, the co-author and biologist at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, discovered the first example of this bacterium — named it Thiomargarita Magnifica, or "magnificent sulfur pearl" — clinging to sunken mangrove leaves in the archipelago of Guadeloupe in 2009.

Scientists have not yet successfully been able to grow it in a lab culture, but the researchers' say the cell has a structure that is unusual for bacteria. It has a large central compartment that allows some cell functions to happen in that controlled environment instead of throughout the cell. Researchers are perplexed as to the size of the bacterium, but they hypothesized that it might be an adaptation to help it escape from being eaten by small organisms.