Understanding the differences in how bacterial species grow and divide is important in a couple of different ways.

This new knowledge can be used to improve the methods used to grow certain useful types of bacteria (e.g., bacteria used in oil spill remediation and eradicating disease-carrying mosquitoes). This discovery will also aid in developing new antimicrobial methods.

Many bacterial species, like E. coli, can easily develop antibiotic resistance even with low level exposures to antibiotics. Bacterial genes and the subsequent protein products can evolve (change) rapidly in order to survive. This is how "superbugs" have become more common. Bacteria change leading to an evolution of antibiotic resistance - the bacteria are no longer resistant to common antibiotics.

Under selective pressures, rapid modification of antibiotic resistance genes and modification of the cell surface of bacteria can allow the species to evade detection by the host cell's defense mechanism and to survive antibiotic efforts - resulting in a superbug that can proliferate.

An increasing number of bacterial species are becoming resistant to all known antibiotics - a phenomenon known as multi-resistance. It's considered one of the most significant emerging threats to public health.

Understanding how bacteria replicate provides new insights on how to combat this ongoing problem.



