Pathogen: Temperature influences gene expression, life cycle in vibrio cholerae

Vibrio cholerae infects roughly four million people annually, worldwide, causing severe diarrheal disease, and killing an estimated 140,000 people. Its success as a pathogen belies the challenges this bacterium faces. The waters this bacterium inhabits when it’s not infecting H. sapiens can be 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than our normal body temperature. Now a team of investigators provides new insights into how different temperatures in the bacterium’s environment control expression of genes required for life at those temperatures.