Blog Post Image: Unique sense of ‘touch’ gives a prolific bacterium its ability to infect anything

A study led by Princeton University researchers found that one of the world’s most prolific bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, manages to afflict humans, animals and even plants by way of a mechanism not before seen in any infectious microorganism — a sense of touch. This technique means the bacteria, unlike most pathogens, do not rely on a chemical signal specific to any one host. To demonstrate the bacteria’s versatility, the researchers infected ivy cells (blue rings) with the bacteria (green areas) then introduced amoebas (yellow) to the same sample. Pseudomonas immediately detected and quickly overwhelmed the amoebas. (Image by Albert Siryaporn, Department of Molecular Biology)