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Flipping the Switch that Arms a Bacterium (1 of 4)

Caption: This is an epifluorescent and differential interference contrast micrograph overlay of adult maternal nematodes with the mutualistic form present as a persistent biofilm (green). Most symbionts are transiently present in the nematode intestine (red) are the insect pathogenic form. The nematodes have a maximum width of 80-100 micrometers. A single promoter inversion switches the symbiont between pathogenic and mutualistic states. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the July 6, 2012, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by V.S. Somvanshi at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., and colleagues was titled, "A Single Promoter Inversion Switches Photorhabdus Between Pathogenic and Mutualistic States."

Credit: [Courtesy of Alexander Martin]

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