Can a bacteria become cancerous (in the sense that it will divide uncontrollably)?
In: Biology
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Cancer is when a multicellular organisms cells divide uncontrollably which causes problems by taking resources and damaging other cells in the same organisim.
Bacteria multiplying uncontrollably is just overpopulation. This tends to be called a bloom, as the bacteria rapidly divide, consume far to many resources from their environment and then mostly die.
Bacteria that infect you and multiply uncontrollably is just a severe infection.
Bacteria reproduce through a process called binary fission. During binary fission, the chromosome copies itself, forming two genetically identical copies. This happens over and over. Binary fission can happen very rapidly. Some species of bacteria can double their population in less than ten minutes. This process makes it possible for a tremendous bacterial colony to start from a single cell.
Most bacteria will divide uncontrollably as long as they are able. Some do it faster than others, but generally for single celled organisms it is adaptive to keep dividing whenever possible, as opposed to tissues in multicellular organisms where division is very tightly regulated.
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