"Endless diversity" in bacterial genomes?
It’s always nice when there’s a groundbreaking article in the literature, and the subject just happens to be your baby. My current research focuses on Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus, GBS), a bacterium that is the leading cause of neonatal meningitis in the United States. It also is a leading cause of invasive infection in the elderly, and can cause sepsis and toxic shock-like syndrome in healthy adults. No vaccine is currently available.
But what’s garnered attention recently hasn’t been any clinical presentations or new case reports of GBS disease; it’s the bacterium’s DNA. Specifically, the whole genomic sequences of 8 different strains of GBS, and the conclusions the authors have come to regarding bacterial genetic diversity–that it may be “endless.”