CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -A fimbria (plural: fimbriae) is a type of appendage of prokaryotic cells. These hair-like protrusions allow prokaryotes to stick to surfaces in their environment and to each other.

Detailed explanation-2: -Pili (Fimbriae): Pili are slender, hairlike, proteinaceous appendages on the surface of many (particularly Gram-negative) bacteria. They are important in adhesion to host surfaces.

Detailed explanation-3: -Bacteria use homologs of eukaryotic cytoskeletal filaments to conduct many different tasks, controlling cell shape, division, and DNA segregation. These filaments, combined with factors that regulate their polymerization, create emergent self-organizing machines.

Detailed explanation-4: -Filamentous micro-organisms are those whose cells are not separated following cell division and so tend to grow in the form of ‘filaments’. Gordonia spp. are filamentous bacteria, known as Actinomycetes, which are extremely hydrophobic due to the presence of mycolic acids on their cell walls.

Detailed explanation-5: -Filamentation is the anomalous growth of certain bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, in which cells continue to elongate but do not divide (no septa formation). The cells that result from elongation without division have multiple chromosomal copies.