The team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that a single atom鈥攁 calcium, in fact鈥攃an control how bacteria walk.
Matthew Redinbo, professor of Chemistry and joint professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at 黑料网 and his team has been working in close collaboration with Matthew Wolfgang, an assistant professor of Microbiology and Immunology and a member of the Cystic Fibrosis/Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center at 黑料网, trying to figure out how bacteria鈥檚 tiny legs, or pili, function.
The finding sheds light on a key step in the process by which bacteria infect their hosts, and could one day lead to new drug targets to prevent infection.