Category
Microbiology
Explore the 6 entries currently assigned to this category. These counts describe this curated catalogue, not the size or rate of change of the field itself.
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Not a fact anymore
European mecC-MRSA lineages arose during the modern antibiotic era because medical or veterinary antibiotic use selected for methicillin resistance.
What we know now
Some European MRSA lineages carrying the resistance gene mecC arose long before antibiotics were used in medicine. Hedgehogs carry these bacteria alongside a skin fungus that naturally produces β-lactam antibiotics, creating an environment that can favor resistant bacteria without human antibiotic use.
- Status
- Corrected
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- Not quantified
- Changed approximately
- 2022
Not a fact anymore
Bacteria are unstructured bags of enzymes with no cytoskeleton or organized interior.
What we know now
Bacteria have organized interiors. They use structural proteins to control cell shape, position internal components, and organize cell division. Some of these proteins are relatives of actin and tubulin, major parts of the cytoskeleton in animal and plant cells.
- Status
- Overturned
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- ≈110 years
- Changed approximately
- 1990s–present
Not a fact anymore
Slime molds are fungi.
What we know now
Slime molds are not true fungi. The name covers several groups of amoeba-like eukaryotes that crawl and feed as individual cells or moving masses before producing spore-bearing structures that happen to resemble fungal fruiting bodies.
- Status
- Reclassified
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- ≈140 years
- Changed approximately
- Late 20th century–present
Not a fact anymore
Standard laboratory methods can culture most microorganisms found in nature.
What we know now
Traditional laboratory culture—growing microorganisms under controlled conditions—recovers only a fraction of environmental microbes. Many require unusual nutrients, partner organisms, host cells, slow growth, low nutrient levels, or conditions that are difficult to reproduce.
- Status
- Overturned
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- ≈100 years
- Changed approximately
- 1970s–2000s
Not a fact anymore
Blue-green algae are true algae and belong with plants.
What we know now
Blue-green algae are cyanobacteria: bacteria that perform photosynthesis. Unlike true algae, their cells have no membrane-bound nucleus or chloroplasts.
- Status
- Reclassified
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- ≈127 years
- Changed approximately
- 1960s–1980s
Not a fact anymore
Prokaryotes were treated as one fundamental group, with organisms now called archaea classified among the bacteria.
What we know now
Cells without a nucleus are not all one kind of organism. They include Bacteria and Archaea, two deeply different evolutionary lineages. Archaea can resemble bacteria under a microscope but differ in their cell membranes, genes, and much of the molecular machinery inside the cell.
- Status
- Reclassified
- Category
- Microbiology
- Accepted for
- Not quantified
- Changed approximately
- 1977–1990
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