Finding the sweet spot in the deep ocean.

‘ Endonucleobacter’ infects the nuclei of deep-sea mussels but it was unknown how they can prevent apoptosis of the host. A new study by Porras and colleagues, published in , suggests that the bacterium upregulates host-derived apoptosis inhibitors and genes for digesting sugars, lipids and amino acids acquired through horizontal gene transfer from the mussels.