MICROBIOLOGY:
Chitin, Cholera, and Competence
Douglas H. Bartlett and Farooq Azam
Vibrio cholerae, a human pathogen, inhabits aquatic environments and is often associated with chitin-containing organisms. In their Perspective, Bartlett and Azam discuss the findings of Meibom et al. in the same issue of chitin-mediated natural DNA transformation in V. cholerae. This finding opens a new window for understanding conditions that influence the evolution of this bacterium in aquatic habitats.
The authors are in the Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA. E-mail: dbartlett{at}ucsd.edu; fazam{at}ucsd.edu