{"678148":{"#nid":"678148","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Your gut bacteria are at war \u2014 and force their enemies to switch sides","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYour gut is a battleground where rival tribes of bacteria armed with poison darts fight for territory \u2013 and these battles are often won by armies of traitors made to switch sides by selfish DNA transferred to them by their enemies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSide switching may be more common than we have appreciated,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/brian-hammer\u0022\u003EBrian Hammer\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. The bacterium that causes cholera also constantly produces and fires dart guns. While it has been assumed that this behaviour is costly, last year Hammer\u2019s team showed that strains of Vibrio cholerae that don\u2019t produce T6SSs \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2023.03.24.534098\u0022\u003Ehardly grow any faster than those that do\u003C\/a\u003E, suggesting that the cost of going around with guns blazing is surprisingly small.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYour gut is a battleground where rival tribes of bacteria armed with poison darts fight for territory \u2013 and these battles are often won by armies of traitors made to switch sides by selfish DNA transferred to them by their enemies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSide switching may be more common than we have appreciated,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/brian-hammer\u0022\u003EBrian Hammer\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. The bacterium that causes cholera also constantly produces and fires dart guns. While it has been assumed that this behaviour is costly, last year Hammer\u2019s team showed that strains of Vibrio cholerae that don\u2019t produce T6SSs \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2023.03.24.534098\u0022\u003Ehardly grow any faster than those that do\u003C\/a\u003E, suggesting that the cost of going around with guns blazing is surprisingly small.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2024-11-04 20:57:50","changed_gmt":"2024-11-05 16:39:05","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"NewScientist","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2453218-your-gut-bacteria-are-at-war-and-force-their-enemies-to-switch-sides\/","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"194071","name":"microbial warfare"},{"id":"192250","name":"cos-microbial"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}