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Flipping the Switch that Arms a Bacterium (3 of 4)

Caption: This is a stereomicrograph with light adjusted to diffract opaque colonies and sectors (white). Colonial growth of the mutualistic form (M-form) and pathogenic form (P-form) Photorhabdus. The P-form colonies are larger, opaque and smooth. The M-form colonies are small, translucent and contain sectors of the P-form. The width of the image is 15mm. 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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