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Science 16 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5755, p. 1737
DOI: 10.1126/science.310.5755.1737k
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This Week in Science
Many bacteria can take up exogenous DNA, an ability known as natural competence. The causative agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, is not known to have this property, but somehow it has clearly acquired virulence attributes, including cholera toxin, from some other source. V. cholerae does possess the genes used by other bacteria to assemble the necessary machinery for DNA uptake, for example, type IV pili. Meibom et al. (p. 1824; see the Perspective by Bartlett and Azam) now show that a chitin (which can be found in the exoskeleton of crabs, a natural host for the bacteria) triggers V. cholerae to produce pili, and to release and exchange functional DNA. This competency remained unnoticed in a pathogen that has been studied for 60 years, which suggests that other noncompetent bacteria may become so under the appropriate growth conditions.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
