Cha Xinran froze.
"Spinefish Bacteria occasionally appear in the hindgut of spinefish. They're half a millimeter long and visible to the naked eye," Song He said. "Sulfur Bead Bacteria are nearly a millimeter in diameter, about the size of a fruit fly's head."
"W-why?" Cha Xinran asked blankly.
"What's the question?" Song He asked with a smile.
"Once the volume becomes enormous, the relative surface area decreases drastically. In theory, they shouldn't be able to support themselves?" Cha Xinran said, bewildered. "What's different about the internal structures of these two millimeter-sized bacteria?"
"Of course there are differences. The first is just like the experiment you originally planned: fusing the genetic material of a huge number of cells together to form one giant cell," Song He said. "Spinefish Bacteria and Sulfur Bead Bacteria are both like that."
"These two bacteria are extremely polyploid. Will that translate? Extreme polyploidy." Song He explained, "The genetic material inside their cells isn't a single copy, but many identical copies of the genome!"
"Spinefish Bacteria have 200,000 copies of their genome, while Sulfur Bead Bacteria have 18,000 copies. It's equivalent to thousands upon thousands of cells, each with a single genome, fusing together to form one organism."
"The second difference is the location of the genomes."
"In these two special giant bacteria, all the genomes cluster near the cell membrane. The center is instead empty, with almost no metabolism. It contains only large vacuoles and empty space. The vacuoles store nitrates, and when there aren't enough nitrates in the surrounding environment, the bacteria use the reserves stored in the vacuoles."
"So... it's like the difference between a detached villa and an apartment building?" Cha Xinran said. "Ordinary cells have only one genome controlling the entire cell, like the owner of a villa. These giant bacteria, on