Bacteria that invade animal cells in order to multiply are widespread in nature. Some of these are pathogens of humans and animals. In the environment, they are often found inside unicellular organisms. A research team led by Matthias Horn at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna has made use of laboratory experiments to gain a better understanding of how these bacteria adapt to their host cell over time and become increasingly infectious under certain conditions. This is due to changes in the genome and in gene expression, particularly in genes that control the interaction of the bacteria with their hosts and those responsible for bacterial metabolism. The study has been published in PNAS.
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Source: Phys.org