Can any one give any idea on current trending of microbiology regarding smallest and largest bacteria.....Are Mycoplasmas and T. Namibiensis still being considered the smallest and largest bacterium respectively?
I teach my students that a murine Archea named "Nanoarchaeum equitans" is the smallest known microorganism in the world. it's just 400nm and smaller than any Mycoplasma (even smaller than Mycoplasma genitalium; well known the smallest mycoplasma).
About the largest; Thiomargarita namibiensis still known as the biggest Prokaryotic microorganism around the world.
About Nasuia deltocephalinicola, it has the smallest genome size among bacteria not smallest in the size, and Buchnera it's not among the largest or smallest things.
It depends whether you also consider endosymbionts like Buchnera and other organisms that have lost the ability to grow as free-living organisms and are on the way to become organelles; there, the record is Nasuia deltocephalinicola, with 112,091 bp
Thank you Sir for the answer. It was really very helpful to keep a track with new trends in Microbiology.
I teach my students that a murine Archea named "Nanoarchaeum equitans" is the smallest known microorganism in the world. it's just 400nm and smaller than any Mycoplasma (even smaller than Mycoplasma genitalium; well known the smallest mycoplasma).
About the largest; Thiomargarita namibiensis still known as the biggest Prokaryotic microorganism around the world.
About Nasuia deltocephalinicola, it has the smallest genome size among bacteria not smallest in the size, and Buchnera it's not among the largest or smallest things.
Agree with Dr Reza too especially on genome size not necessarily dictating an organism's size. Still battling with that notion anyway.
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