Worm sugarcoats bacterial toxins to stave off death
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—Pathogenic bacteria kill their animal or plant hosts through the production of toxic molecules. But how do animals and plants defend themselves against these toxins? Researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI), located at Cornell University, and the University of Florida (UF) have found that the tiny nematode C. elegans chemically disables bacterial toxins: The worms attach a sugar molecule (glucose), which renders toxic bacterial molecules harmless. The paper was published in the Nov. 19 issue of ACS Chemical Biology.