From Jekyll to Hyde: New study pinpoints mutation that makes E. coli deadlier

(Okayama University) We all know that there are "good" and "bad" bacteria, but scientists have little insight into how bacteria become "bad" or "pathogenic" and cause disease. Now, in a new study published in PLoS Pathogens, a team of scientists from Okayama University, Japan, described how mutations resulting in the malformation of the lipopolysaccharide transporter--an essential protein for bacterial growth--caused a non-pathogenic Escherichia coli strain to become pathogenic.