Jekyll and Hyde bacteria helps or kills, depending on chance
Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 17:00
in Biology & Nature
Living in the guts of worms are seemingly innocuous bacteria that contribute to their survival. With a flip of a switch, however, these same bacteria transform from harmless microbes into deadly insecticides. Scientists have revealed how a bacteria flips a DNA switch to go from an upstanding community member in the gut microbiome to deadly killer in insect blood.