How do bacteria excrete?

What is excretion?

Cells get rid of the waste products of their cellular reactions by excretion. Some products that need to be excreted by cells include: Carbon dioxide, water, and salts e.g. urea.

Just like other living organisms it is essential for bacteria to get rid of the waste products of cellular reactions by excretion. Bacteria excrete their waste products through their cell membrane.

As we have seen, bacteria produce waste products from aerobic and anaerobic respiration and some of these prove useful to humans. Nitrifying bacteria in the soil and root nodules of some plants excrete nitrates and nitrites which are important in the recycling of nitrogen and its compounds.

However, not all the products excreted by bacteria are useful to us. Many bacteria excrete toxins as waste products and these can cause nasty diseases such as botulism, cholera, tetanus in humans. We will look at the different types of bacterial toxins later.