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Microbiology

Jekyll or hide?

Nature volume 432, pages 680–681 (2004)Cite this article

Many bacteria can adopt different lifestyles: in a free-living state, they are virulent and cause disease; in a surface-attached community, they are less virulent but may go unnoticed. How is this ‘decision’ made?

Although there are many variations on bacterial two-component regulatory systems, their basic job is to constantly sample the external environment and transmit this information to the bacterial interior. This allows the organism to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Goodman et al.1 discovered a new protein component of a new such regulatory system, a component that they call RetS.

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Figure 1: Persistence versus infection.

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, 03755, New Hampshire, USA

    George A. O'Toole

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  1. George A. O'Toole
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O'Toole, G. Jekyll or hide?. Nature 432, 680–681 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/432680a

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