system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Can bacteria die of old age?
gpt
Yes, over time bacteria accumulate damaged DNA, misfolded proteins, and old membrane/cell wall material. If it accumulates enough of these it will die.

When bacteria divide it groups all of these things into one side (called the old pole) before splitting in half. The daughter cell inheriting this old pole tends to perform worse than the other cell. 

Over time and after many divisions the cells with the oldest poles die.