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Microbiology: Tinker, bacteria, eukaryote, spy

Nature volume 459, pages 159–161 (2009)Cite this article

Bacteria and their hosts may reside in different kingdoms, but that doesn't stop them from intercepting each other's communications. Asher Mullard reports.

When Mark Lyte looked up from the podium at the 1992 American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, he saw two faces — and nearly 400 empty seats. Lyte, a microbiologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, ploughed on regardless. He had a lot to say. His experiments had shown that three species of infectious bacterium intercept the human stress-response hormone noradrenaline and use it as a cue to escalate their growth — perhaps explaining why stressed animals are more likely to die of infection despite having boosted their immune responses.

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Authors
  1. Asher Mullard
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Asher Mullard is a freelance science writer based in London.

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Vanessa Sperandio

Kendra Rumbaugh

Mark Lyte

Staffan Kjelleberg

Hattie Gresham

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Mullard, A. Microbiology: Tinker, bacteria, eukaryote, spy. Nature 459, 159–161 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459159a

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