Bacteria Can Have a Sense of Smell

Bacteria are well-known to be the cause of some of the most repugnant smells on earth, but now scientists have revealed this lowest of life forms actually has a sense of smell of its own.

A team of marine microbiologists at Newcastle University have discovered for the first time that bacteria have a molecular "nose" that is able to detect airborne, smell-producing chemicals such as ammonia.

Using rival bacteria Bacillus subtilis and B.licheniformus, both commonly found in the soil, the team found that each produced a biofilm in response to airborne ammonia and that the response decreased as the distance between the two bacterial colonies increased.

Original paper:

'Bacterial Olfaction' by Reindert Nijland and Grant Burgess.  Biotechnology Journal, September 2010. Available online from: 16 August, 2010.  DOI: 10.1002/biot.201000174

Source:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/bacteria-breakthrough-is-heaven-scent