Tight-space crawling may help explain how brain-eating amoebas reach the brain

Science News reports that researchers tested N. gruberi, a harmless amoeba that shares behaviors with the brain-eating N. fowleri. In narrow lab channels, the amoebas squeezed through spaces smaller than themselves and rarely turned back. Researchers say that persistence may help Naegleria hunt bacteria in pond sediments and could help explain how N. fowleri travels from the nose to the brain in rare infections.