Lactococcus lactis - a diploid bacterium.

In contrast to higher eukaryotes, bacteria are haploid, i.e. they store their genetic information in a single chromosome, which is then duplicated during the cell cycle. If the growth rate is sufficiently low, the bacterium is born with only a single copy of the chromosome, which gets duplicated before the bacterium divides. Fast-growing bacteria have overlapping rounds of replication, and can contain DNA corresponding to more than four genome equivalents. However, the terminus region of the chromosome is still present in just one copy after division, and is not duplicated until right before the next division. Thus, the regions of the chromosome that are the last to be replicated are haploid even in fast-growing bacteria. In contrast to this general rule for bacteria, we found that Lactococcus lactis, a bacterium which has been exploited for thousands of years for the production of fermented milk products, is born with two complete non-replicating chromosomes. L. lactis therefore remain diploid throughout its entire life cycle.