Scientists Crack Chemical Code that Controls Bacterial Swarms
Bacterial Swarm The visible concentric circles show evidence of bacteria swarm as the colony starts and stops its forward progress. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Spanish researchers have discovered a key component of infectious bacteria's battle plan, identifying a protein that tells bacteria in a colony to halt their forward march when antibiotics are present, waiting until the coast is clear before resuming the infection. The finding shows how bacteria outmaneuver antibiotics in the body to continue infecting an organ even after treatment, but it also pinpoints a vulnerability that researchers may be able to exploit to make antibiotics more effective. When infecting tissue in the body, bacteria swarm collectively across the surface like an 18th-century army on the march, growing into a massive colony that produces toxins that cause damage to the tissue. The mechanism by which bacteria organize this mass movement has remained a mystery to researchers, but now...