Sugar Kick

Introduction

The food-poisoning Salmonella bacteria require sugar to multiply in the host cell. When a bacterium infects an organism, it overpowers the immune cells meant to kill it and multiplies inside them. But to multiply, the bacterium requires energy. When Salmonella genes were mutated to render them unable to use sugar, bacteria could not replicate. When mutated bacteria were introduced in mice, the mice did not fall ill, said the study published online on April 20 in the journal Infection and Immunity. Since the mutated Salmonella could still bring about immune response, the researchers think these can be used to develop a vaccine against food poisoning.

Source

Down To Earth, July 2009