BACTERIA CAN STORE MEMORIES AND PASS THEM ON FOR GENERATIONS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Scientists from the University of Texas and the University of Delaware have discovered a memory system that allows E. coli to remember past experiences for several hours and generations. The scientists have yet to identify the molecular mechanism behind the memory system or its inheritability, but there is strong evidence to suggest that there is a level of persistent conditioning at play. It is related to the level of intracellular iron in the bacteria. Iron is connected to multiple stress responses in bacteria, so a memory system that uses it makes a lot of evolutionary sense.