To exist in a wide range of environmental niches, bacteria must sense and respond to a
variety of external signals. A primary means by which this occurs is through two-component …

Enteric pathogens such as Salmonella enterica cause significant morbidity and mortality. S.
enterica serovars are a diverse group of pathogens that have evolved to survive in a wide …

Speciation is the process by which barriers to gene flow evolve between populations.
Although we now know that speciation is largely driven by natural selection, knowledge of …

All complex life is composed of eukaryotic (nucleated) cells. The eukaryotic cell arose from
prokaryotes just once in four billion years, and otherwise prokaryotes show no tendency to …

Integrated phages (prophages) are major contributors to the diversity of bacterial gene
repertoires. Domestication of their components is thought to have endowed bacteria with …

Prokaryotic genomes are usually densely packed with intact and functional genes. However,
in certain contexts, such as after recent ecological shifts or extreme population bottlenecks …

Multi-country outbreaks of foodborne bacterial disease present challenges in their detection,
tracking, and notification. As food is increasingly distributed across borders, such outbreaks …

Pseudogenes have long been labeled as “junk” DNA, failed copies of genes that arise
during the evolution of genomes. However, recent results are challenging this moniker; …

Closely related pathogens may differ dramatically in host range, but the molecular, genetic,
and evolutionary basis for these differences remains unclear. In many Gram-negative …

The enterococci evolved over eons as highly adapted members of gastrointestinal consortia
of a wide variety of hosts, but for reasons that are not entirely clear, emerged in the 1970s as …