Bacterium with grabber arms stops intruders

Bacteria in drinks such as Vifit stop pathogens by using grabber-like arms to cling onto intestinal walls. This discovery is made by a group of Finnish, Belgium and Dutch researchers, under the coordination of Prof. Willem de Vos of the Laboratory of Microbiology (Wageningen University, The Netherlands). The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences late last week.