Mark Achtman

TL;DR: Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), which exploits the unambiguous nature and electronic portability of nucleotide sequence data for the characterization of microorganisms, can be applied to almost all bacterial species and other haploid organisms, including those that are difficult to cultivate.

TL;DR: The evolution of virulence is linked to bacterial sex because rates of evolution have accelerated in pathogenic lineages, culminating in highly virulent organisms whose genomic contents are altered frequently by increased rates of homologous recombination.

TL;DR: Analysis of the population genetic structure of Y. pestis and the two other pathogenic Yersinia species shows consistent with previous inferences that Antiqua caused a plague pandemic in the sixth century, Medievalis caused the Black Death and subsequent epidemics during the second pandemic wave, and Orientalis cause the current Plague pandemic.

TL;DR: The authors' analysis indicates that B. parapertussis and B. pertussis are independent derivatives of B. bronchiseptica-like ancestors; host adaptation seems to be a consequence of loss, not gain, of function, and differences in virulence may be related to loss of regulatory or control functions.

TL;DR: Helicobacter pylori, a chronic gastric pathogen of human beings, can be divided into seven populations and subpopulations with distinct geographical distributions.