Even a Single Bacterial Cell Can Sense the Seasons Changing | Quanta Magazine

Scientists have found that cyanobacteria anticipate the change by bundling up in their own way.

They turn on a set of seasonal genes, including some that adjust the molecular composition of their cell membranes, to improve their odds of survival.

Staying in sync with the seasons could be more ancient and more elemental to life than anyone suspected.

Study: Winter -primed cyanobacteria had more desaturated lipids that kept their cell membranes from gumming up as the temperature dropped.

The daily molecular clock might be driving the seasonal calendar as well.

It is humbling to think that something so ancient and small may contain the seeds of the complex seasonal anticipation behaviors we see today .

A new research fellow at the John Innes Center plans to explore the photoperiodic responses of more bacteria to better understand when this ability to anticipate seasons might have evolved.

Other strains of bacteria have circadian clock genes that drive mechanisms markedly different from cyanobacteria .

They may reveal more secrets about internal rhythms and seasonal adaptations.