Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 2

What characteristic shapes can bacteria and archaea assume? Describe the ways in which bacterial cells cluster together.

Step 1 of 2

There are several different morphologies that describe particular bacteria and archaea. Archaea can have a round (cocci) shape or a rod (bacilli) shape. Bacteria can also be circular, rod, or a spiral shape (spirochete). Some bacteria are also pleomorphic, which means they do not assume a particular shape.