They're Manipulating the Sticky Stalk of a Mutant Bacteria

You knew Northfield has a lab where they're dabbling in mutant bacteria genes, right? According to the St. Olaf News:

"Students in Assistant Professor of Biology Lisa Bowers’ research class first isolated this important gene back in January. The bacterial species they’re studying, Caulobacter crescentus, usually undergoes two phases of its cell cycle. During the first phase, the cells have a flagellum, a tail-like structure that helps them swim and look for food. When the cells enter the second phase, they shed the flagellum and grow a long sticky stalk, which allows them to stick to surfaces.

"The students discovered that deleting the novel gene prevented Caulobacter from growing a stalk during the second phase of its life cycle. ... 'To our knowledge, nobody has ever studied this gene before, so part of our summer research is to figure out what it encodes exactly,' says Bowers."

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