If the fungal spore outbreak in The Last of Us scared the hell out of you, you’ll be doubly terrified to know that there are actual parasites in nature that can turn animals and plants into zombies. In fact, a group of scientists from the John Innes Centre in the UK just figured out how certain parasitic bacteria called phytoplasma turn their plant host into the living dead. You see, when these nefarious bacteria take over, they transform a plant’s flowers into leafy shoots, turning petals green and preventing the flowers from producing offspring. Apparently, that’s because the parasite has a protein called SAP54, which interacts with the plant so that flowers self-destruct from the inside.
via Engadget
Image: PLOS Biology
