This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Tiny, shapeless invaders can find their way from ponds to the human brain and cause an infection so severe that it has a 95% fatality rate. The amoeba Naegleria fowleri naturally lives in ponds, feasting on bacteria, but once it enters the human body, it makes a run for the brain tissue, traversing complex, tight spaces to reach its destination.
A recent study set out to crack the secret of how a tiny amoeba steers itself through unfamiliar terrain without any guide. Researchers built a microscopic obstacle course for the amoebas and filmed their every move, tracking how they squeeze through tight spaces and tackle different environments. They identified a few core mechanisms behind their navigational success.
First, a love for tight spaces. Other lab amoebas, like Dictyostelium, tend to back off when a gap gets narrow, but amoebas from the Naegleria genus did the opposite. They probed narrow microchannels and pushed right in with no need for a chemical lure.
Second, on flat surfaces, the amoebas crawled using a mix of broad, sheetlike extensions and fluid-filled membrane bubbles called blebs. In tight spaces, Naegleria nearly doubled its speed. Once inside a narrow channel, it locked onto a straight path and rarely turned back.
The researchers proposed that these tactics may have evolved to hunt bacteria hidden in muddy pond sediments. The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our bodies host tiny germs that generally do not cause harm but can become pathogenic when an opportunity arises.
Similarly, the Naegleria fowleri amoeba lives in warm freshwater lakes, ponds and springs and doesn't harm the living creatures there, except bacteria. However, when it finds its way into the human body, it causes a rare but devastating brain infection with a high fatality rate. To combat its ability to cause infection, scientists need to understand what makes N. fowleri capable of moving to the brain and causing infection there.
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