Tag: bacterium
Scientists identify bacterium behind devastating wasting disease in starfish
After 90% loss of global sunflower sea star population in 10 years, researchers hope decline can now be tackled A decade after the onset of a sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic considered the largest ever documented in the wild, researchers have identified the microbial culprit responsible: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida. In…
Black Death Plague Bacterium Became Less Fatal thanks to Just One Genetic Tweak
Black Death Plague That Killed Millions Became Less Fatal because of This Genetic Tweak Reducing the copies of one gene in the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, made it less deadly but potentially more transmissible By Rachel Fieldhouse & Nature magazine Scanning electron micrograph of Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague, on proventricular spines of a Xenopsylla…