How do bacteria recognize their surroundings?

When we taste or smell, the cognitive components (called receptors) of nerve cells check for substances and send information to the brain. In the brain, many other cells will process the information brought to know what we are tasting or smelling. But bacteria is just a creature unicellular and they use other receptors to identify their surroundings.

The bacterial receptors combine to form a 'lattice' on the surface of the bacteria to amplify the smallest changes in the environment, leading to specific reactions in the cell. Bacteria can identify a small change of only 0.1% of the surrounding environment. Scientists believe that there has never been a system so sensitive.

The eye mechanism of receptors in bacteria can be used to produce molecular-sized sensors. These devices will be used to identify chemicals, light, pH or heavy metals with high sensitivity.

Liu Huang Liang