Study reveals 'spiteful' behaviour in bacteria

Bugged by freeloaders? You are not alone, and leeching off others is not just a human problem. In fact, it is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, where even some cheater species of bacteria exhibit such selfish behavior.

Synthetic biologists redesign the way bacteria 'talk' to each other

Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have redesigned how harmless E. coli bacteria "talk" to each other. The new genetic circuit could become a useful new tool for synthetic biologists who, as a field, are ...

Compound allows bacterial communication to be controlled by light

Scientists from the University of Groningen have succeeded in incorporating a light-controlled switch into a molecule used by bacteria for quorum sensing—a process by which bacteria communicate and subsequently control ...

Toxin-spewing bacteria decoded

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a central regulator of toxin production in the bacterium C. difficile, the most common cause of healthcare-associated infections in the United States. C. difficile ...

How antibiotics spread resistance

Bacteria can become insensitive to antibiotics by picking up resistance genes from the environment. Unfortunately for patients, the stress response induced by antibiotics activates competence in microorganisms, the ability ...

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