Deciphering how bacteria respond to stress could yield new clues for combating food spoilage and for controlling foodborne pathogens, and that goal is closer now that a team led by Rice University bioengineering researchers has decoded the mechanism that some bacteria use to make life-or-death decisions during extremely tough times. The new study, published online Monday in Molecular Systems Biology, sheds light on a long-standing debate about one of the field’s fundamental questions: What causes stressed-out bacteria to make the drastic move to cease normal functions and form spores?
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