Nature’s strongest glue now works in both wet and salty environments

Phys.org  October 27, 2021 An aquatic bacterium called Caulobacter crescentus produces an extremely powerful glue called “holdfast,” which adheres to its surrounding wet surfaces, such as pipes and fresh water. To improve holdfast adhesion in high salinity environments researchers in Canada compared Caulobacter crescentus with a marine relative called Hirschia baltica. They found both had the same genes to synthesize holdfast indicating they used the same type of glue. Hirschia baltica holdfast also appeared to perform very well in a saline environment, which is its natural environment. By manipulating the level of expression of a particular gene whose function is […]