In a First, Bacteria Seen Storing Memories And Passing Them on For Generations

[Landon Caeli]

Researchers at the University of Texas and the University of Delaware have now uncovered a potential memory system that allows E. coli to 'remember' past experiences for several hours and generations thereafter.

The team says that, to their knowledge, this kind of bacterial memory has not been unearthed before.

...The authors behind the study have yet to identify a molecular mechanism behind the potential memory system or its inheritability, but the strong association between intracellular iron and intergenerational swarming behavior suggests there is a level of persistent conditioning at play.

In a First, Bacteria Seen Storing Memories And Passing Them on For Generations

A single-celled organism with no brain or nervous system to speak of may still form memories and pass those memories on to future generations, according to new research.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Landon Caeli]

Obviously there is something not understood about "memory"... I think I read somewhere that even the revolving of planets, within our own solar system, leave marks within the fabric of space - a kind of memory.

 

[Lost4words]

The researchers later forgot where they put the samples!

 

[Landon Caeli]

The researchers later forgot where they put the samples!

Sounds like something I would do.

 

[The Barbarian]

This is sometimes referred to as "epigenetic." Changes in phenotype over several generations that is not determined by genes. A sort of limited Lamarckian evolution. Every rule in biology has an exception, including this one.