Pathogen evolution: How good bacteria go bad.
Recent findings suggest that dysentery-causing Shigella strains have arisen several times from Escherichia coli via plasmid acquisition and phenotypic convergence. Similarly, three Bacillus strains with distinct pathogenic properties are derivatives of a single species whose behavior is profoundly altered by acquired plasmids.
Biology Department, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California 95053, USA. cstephens@scu.edu
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D001407:Bacillus / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D010957:Plasmids; D013045:Species Specificity