Israeli scientists show bacteria can plan ahead

Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 05:00 in Psychology & Sociology

Bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it, according to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In a paper that appeared today in Nature, Prof. Yitzhak Pilpel, doctoral student Amir Mitchell and research associate Dr Orna Dahan of the Institute's Molecular Genetics Department, together with Prof. Martin Kupiec and Gal Romano of Tel Aviv University, examined microorganisms living in environments that change in predictable ways. Their findings show that these microorganisms' genetic networks are hard-wired to 'foresee' what comes next in the sequence of events and begin responding to the new state of affairs before its onset...

Read the whole article on Science Centric

More from Science Centric

Related

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox!