Question

What are the different shapes of bacteria?

Answer 1

Hint: Bacteria are the microorganisms that are present in our environment. Some of them cause diseases in humans and some others don’t. Based on the differences in their shapes, they are of several types.

Complete answer: Bacteria are prokaryotic organisms and they contain a primitive nucleus and
other properties of a prokaryotic cell. Bacteria can be identified based on their morphological
structure. They are seen in different shapes such as round, rod-shaped, comma-shaped, and spiral-shaped.
-Spherical shaped bacteria are called coccus. Two spherical cocci may be seen together and are called
diplococci. In streptococci, many spherical shaped cocci are seen in a chain. Examples of cocci are
streptococci, staphylococci, gonococci, meningococci, etc. Neisseria meningitidis are called
meningococci and Neisseria gonorrhoeae is called gonococci. Most cocci are gram-positive bacterias. But bacterias like Neisseria are gram-negative in nature.
-Rod-shaped bacterias are called Bacilli. Most of the bacilli are gram-negative staining in nature. But gram-positive rods are also present like Corynebacterium, Clostridium, Listeria, etc.
-Comma shaped bacteria are called vibrium. Vibrio cholerae is a comma shaped bacteria that causes the disease cholera.
-Spiral shaped bacterias are called spirilla. Examples for spirochetes are Treponema, Borellia,
Leptospira, etc.

-There are some bacteria that are seen in different shapes. These are called pleomorphic bacteria. Rickettsia and Chlamydia are examples for pleomorphic bacteria.

Note: Based on gram staining, bacterias are broadly classified into gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. Gram-positive bacteria retain the stain after gram staining and are seen in purple colour while gram-negative do not.