A newly discovered bacterium is up to a centimetre long. Plus, monkeypox insights from Africa and the public-health consequences of a US Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.
achieves its unprecedented size by having unique cellular features: two membrane sacs. One is filled with its genetic material; the other, which is much larger, helps to keep its cellular contents pressed up against its outer cell wall so that essential molecules can diffuse in and out.
Researchers have dubbed these sacs ‘pepins’ — inspired by the pips in fruit — and note that they blur the line between single-celled prokaryotes and the eukaryotes , which pack their DNA into a nucleus. Eagle-eyed Briefing readers will remember this spectacular organism from February, when researchers published these results in a preprint.