Scientists discover world's largest bacterium. You can see it with naked eyes

Microbiologists have successfully been able to discover the world’s largest bacterium. Known as Thiomargarita magnifica, the bacterium is in the form of white filaments and is 1 centimeter long.

Almost the same size as a human eyelash, the bacterium has been found on the surface of decaying mangrove leaves in a swap in Guadeloupe, a French island group in the Caribbean Sea. The bacterium is visible with the naked eye.

After deep research, scientists were able to conclude that the bacterium has 3 times more genes than other bacteria and each cell of the bacterium hold hundreds of thousands of genome copies.

Although, scientists have yet not concluded how the bacterium became this size.

Another unique trait of the Thiomargarita magnifica is its DNA structure. While in most bacteria, the DNA floats around the cell, in the Thiomargarita magnifica, the DNA is organised into membrane-bound compartments in the cell.

The study has been published in Science on June 23.

“It’s 5,000 times bigger than most bacteria. To put it into context, it would be like a human encountering another human as tall as Mount Everest,” Jean-Marie Volland, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US said.

Check out this video of Volland talking about the bacterium:

The bacterium has been discovered by Professor Oliver Gros, who is a marine biology professor at the Université des Antilles in Guadeloupe. At the time, he was searching for symbiotic bacteria in the ecosystem.

Thiomargarita magnifica has yet not been found in any other location and has also disappeared from where it was first found, indicating that it may be a seasonal organism.