<microbiology> One of the two major classes of prokaryotic
organism (the other being the Cyanobacteria). Bacteria are small
(linear dimensions of around 1 m), noncompartmentalised, with
circular DNA and ribosomes of 70S. Protein synthesis differs
from that of eukaryotes and many antibacterial antibiotics
interfere with protein synthesis, but do not affect the infected
host. Recently bacteria have been subdivided into Eubacteria and
Archaebacteria, although some would consider the Archaebacteria
to be a third kingdom, distinct from both Eubacteria and
Eukaryotes. The Eubacteria can be further subdivided on the
basis of their staining using Gram stain. Since the difference
between gram-positive and gram-negative depends upon a
fundamental difference in cell wall structure it is therefore
more soundly based than classification on gross morphology alone
(into cocci, bacilli, etc.). (02 Jan 1998) |Bookmark with:||word
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