Senescence: even bacteria get old.
Cellular senescence, even in the presence of abundant nutrients, has now been demonstrated in several microbes, including most recently the bacterium Escherichia coli, suggesting that it may be a universal adaptive response to the inevitable damage to cell constituents that accumulates with time.
Stephens
Craig
C
Biology Department, Santa Clara University, CA 95053, USA.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors