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'Add, stir and reduce': Yersinia spp. as model bacteria for pathogen evolution

2016; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 14; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nrmicro.2015.29

1740-1534

Alan McNally, Nicholas R. Thomson, Sandra Reuter, Brendan W. Wren,

Zoonotic diseases and public health

In the genomics era,Yersiniahas proven to be a model genus for studying the emergence of pathogenesis. Focusing on this model, McNally and colleagues highlight the events in genome evolution that underlie pathogenesis and argue for an 'eco–evo' perspective of pathogen evolution. Pathogenic species in the Yersinia genus have historically been targets for research aimed at understanding how bacteria evolve into mammalian pathogens. The advent of large-scale population genomic studies has greatly accelerated the progress in this field, and Yersinia pestis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia enterocolitica have once again acted as model organisms to help shape our understanding of the evolutionary processes involved in pathogenesis. In this Review, we highlight the gene gain, gene loss and genome rearrangement events that have been identified by genomic studies in pathogenic Yersinia species, and we discuss how these findings are changing our understanding of pathogen evolution. Finally, as these traits are also found in the genomes of other species in the Enterobacteriaceae, we suggest that they provide a blueprint for the evolution of enteropathogenic bacteria.