bacteria survival in a petri dish. why?

MS.ing

bacteria divide to reproduce aparently
so in the case (ba dum tis) of a petri dish will all the bacteria die eventually (a petri dish is a finite space afterall) or can they eat each other to stay alive and keep dividing if the conditions the case is in dont ever change?

wazky

Usually ends in a murder-suicide.

humbert

They probably can't perfectly recycle their waste so there would be a reduction in nutrients.

wendell borton

They get autoclaved.

Says I To Bridey

I don't get your ba dum tis joke

kumate_champ07

they need food to multiply, the petri dish contains a special clear gel that allows them to multiply, if its kept sealed they will stop eventually. theres bacteria and fungus everywhere. if you leave something exposed to it, it will eventually get attacked and slowly eaten.

even our atmosphere made up of various gases is of a caustic nature, never mind the invisible(to naked eye) microscopic particles that inhabit the air

GLaDOS

Food will eventually run out, as well as a build up in toxic waste products, eventually leading to total death.

That said, they can be hardy little buggers, we found something growing in (apparently) 100% methanol the other day!

MS.ing

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

they need food to multiply, the petri dish contains a special clear gel that allows them to multiply, if its kept sealed they will stop eventually

thats the bit I didnt know cheers, a quick google says they will eat anything, but that goes against what you have just said. Im trying to find out if bacteria can eat eachother in a petri dish. dont suppose youd have an online link to something which backs up your claim that that food cant come from dead members which are otherwise identical in the same petri dish?

holystungun9

Says I To Bridey wrote: »

I don't get your ba dum tis joke

A case is similar to a dish as it is a type of container. This is humorous/hilarious. I hope this was the joke or else I was quite the fool rolling around the floor laughing for no reason.

MadYaker

MS.ing wrote: »

thats the bit I didnt know cheers, a quick google says they will eat anything, but that goes against what you have just said. Im trying to find out if bacteria can eat eachother in a petri dish. dont suppose youd have an online link to something which backs up your claim that that food cant come from dead members which are otherwise identical in the same petri dish?

Usually once the nutrient agar runs out the bacteria die or revert to spore forms until new nutrients become available. There has been some research into this, see here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12817086

MS.ing

MadYaker wrote: »

Usually once the nutrient agar runs out the bacteria die or revert to spore forms until new nutrients become available. There has been some research into this, see here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12817086

thats more like it, but I cant get the free full text version for some reason nothing happens after clicking it, normaly when I get a link for that site it will say conclusions, but I notice it doesnt for this link

Capt'n Midnight

The problem is not running of nutrients because they can be recycled, it's running out of energy.

If you have a photosynthetic organism that can use external energy they can survive indefinitely sealed up.

Here's a moss garden sealed in 1972.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html

JohnnyChimpo

Bacteria (and most any living thing, except for photosynthetic organisms) will obtain energy to fuel their existence and growth by the oxidation of carbohydrates or carbohydrate intermediates. Technically, they convert the energy from these bonds into the reactive chemical species ATP which fuels almost all biological processes (again, mostly).

Once this energy has been used, further growth becomes bioenergetically unfavourable, and then impossible.

Mr. CooL ICE

In a petri dish, you have trapped all the bacteria, but what do you do then? Throw the petri dish into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it and they begin to get hungry. And one by one they start eating each other until there are only two left. The two survivors. And then what? Do you kill them? No. You take them and release them into the trees, but now they don't eat agar any more. Now, they only eat bacteria. You have changed their nature. The two survivors.

MadYaker

MS.ing wrote: »

thats more like it, but I cant get the free full text version for some reason nothing happens after clicking it, normaly when I get a link for that site it will say conclusions, but I notice it doesnt for this link

The full text versions are only available to people who have access. So people who have paid subscriptions to the journal it was published in or students of universities who can usually get it for free. I read the whole thing, its interesting but I can't link it to you I don't think.

Basically the answer to your question depends on the type of bacteria in question. For most bacteria once the nutrients in the agar run out they die or revert to spore formation. But some while reverting to spore formation secrete a chemical which breaks up other bacteria nearby allowing them to keep growing by feeding on the other dead bacteria. I suspect though the amount that would continue to live via this method would be tiny and they probably wouldn't be reproducing.

If you like this sort of stuff go to college and study microbiology.

MS.ing

MadYaker wrote: »

The full text versions are only available to people who have access. So people who have paid subscriptions to the journal it was published in or students of universities who can usually get it for free. I read the whole thing, its interesting but I can't link it to you I don't think.

Basically the answer to your question depends on the type of bacteria in question. For most bacteria once the nutrients in the agar run out they die or revert to spore formation. But some while reverting to spore formation secrete a chemical which breaks up other bacteria nearby allowing them to keep growing by feeding on the other dead bacteria. I suspect though the amount that would continue to live via this method would be tiny and they probably wouldn't be reproducing.

If you like this sort of stuff go to college and study microbiology.

no its just a curious question, but the answer to which could help identify if eternal life or at least much much much longer duration could be possible starting with how bacteria manage it if they do, because obviously if one type of bacteria can reproduce a long way after (decades/centuries) in a petri dish then that is eternal life provided the conditions/environment around the dish dont change

MadYaker

There is a type of jellyfish that are technically immortal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii

If you are interested in immortality in animals (humans) google "telomeres and immortality"

There are various types of animals which are theoretically "immortal" or that can at least theoretically live for an extremely long period of time. Most are simple organisms that have been around for a very long time and haven't evolved much.

MS.ing

MadYaker wrote: »

There is a type of jellyfish that are technically immortal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii

If you are interested in immortality in animals (humans) google "telomeres and immortality"

There are various types of animals which are theoretically "immortal" or that can at least theoretically live for an extremely long period of time. Most are simple organisms that have been around for a very long time and haven't evolved much.

looks like some good reading there, cheers, interesting indeed..

downonthefarm

If god wants them to live they will