Horizontal Gene Transfer in the Evolution of Pathogenesis

Michael Hensel is currently Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Erlangen in Germany. Herbert Schmidt is currently Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

• Part I. Theoretical Considerations on the Evolution of Bacterial Pathogens: 1. Genomes in motion - gene transfer as a catalyst for genome change Jeffrey G. Lawrence and Heather Hendrickson; 2. Bacterial recombination in vivo Xavier Didelot and Daniel Falush; Part II. Mobile Genetic Elements in Bacterial Evolution: 3. Phage-bacterium co-evolution and its implication for bacterial pathogenesis Harald Brüssow; 4. Phage conversion - driving forces in the development and spread of bacterial pathogens Roger W. Hendrix and Sherwood R. Casjens; 5. Genomic islands in the bacterial chromosome – paradigms of microevolution in quantum leaps Tobias Ölschläger and Jörg Hacker; Part III. Paradigms of Bacterial Evolution: 6. Genomic islands in plant-pathogenic bacteria Dawn L. Arnold and Robert W. Jackson; 7. Prophage contribution to salmonella virulence and diversity Sébastien Lemire, Nara Figueroa-Bossi and Lionello Bossi; 8. Pathogenic yersiniae: stepwise gain of virulence due to sequential acquisition of mobile genetic elements Elisabeth Carniel; 9. Genomic or pathogenicity islands in streptococcus pneumoniae Barbara Albiger, Christel Blomberg, Jessica Dagerhamm, Staffan Normark and Brigitta Henriques-Normark; 10. The mobile genetic elements of staphylococcus aureus Richard P. Novick; 11. Influence of human lifestyle on dissemination of transferable elements Wolfgang Witte; Part IV. Interkingdom Transfer and Endosymbiosis: 12. Eukaryotic gene transfer: adaptation and replacements Jan O. Andersson; 13. Lessons in evolution from genome reduction in bacterial endosymbionts Andrés Moya and Amparo Latorre.