From the point of view of an intracellular bacteria, the human body really is no more than just a habitat in which they must grow and thrive. While this particular habitat might have stable internal conditions, and less competition than the big open world, it has its disadvantages in continuous attacks from the immune system, and the lack of usable nutrients. In the soil, nutrients can be found and exploited, but within a living organism they are being used and locked away by the host cells.In order to eat, therefore, the internal bacteria must find ways of stealing and sequestering nutrients from the infected cells. A recent paper from, PLoS Pathogens (reference 1) shows how Salmonella infecting rat cells manage to find enough nutrients to grow and develop. [More]














Source: How to eat your host: Pathways for nutrition in Salmonella