Published today; open-access:

Spiga et al. An anaerobic pathogen rewires host metabolism to fuel oxidative growth in the inflamed gut: Cell

It's an instance of an extended phenotype , like the fungus I've previously shared that manipulates the host into overfeeding.

This bacteria was thought to be anaerobic, which was puzzling since it thrives in oxygen-rich environments, but as it turns out, it was cryptically aerobic, and it manipulates the host into creating an oxygen-rich environment, to kill the competition:

How ETBF, a classically anaerobic pathogen, successfully persists in the inflamed, oxygen-enriched gut it induces,50 has remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that ETBF leverages its virulence factor, BFT, to reprogram epithelial cell metabolism , thereby reshaping the gut nutritional landscape. This reprogramming leads to increased levels of lactate and oxygen, which fuel ETBF’s unique oxidative metabolism .…