September 23, 2005
Joshua Shaevitz, Miller Research Fellow in Integrated Biology and member of Professor Dan Fletcher’s laboratory, is lead author on a paper describing the twirly way Spiroplasma bacteria get around.
The paper, coauthored with Dr. Fletcher and Joanna Yee of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, was published in the September 23 issue of Cell.
The findings describe for the first time a new form of movement for bacteria – the movements of Spiroplasma, tiny helical bacteria that infect plants and insects, resemble a kink moving down a spiral phone cord. The researchers said that understanding how bacteria move from one point to another is important in disease control.
Read the full story on the UC Berkeley News Center.