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- Title
Bacterial populations as perfect gases: genomic integrity and diversification tensions in Helicobacter pylori.
- Authors
Kang, Josephine; Blaser, Martin J.
- Abstract
Microorganisms that persist in single hosts face particular challenges. Helicobacter pylori, an obligate bacterial parasite of the human stomach, has evolved a lifestyle that features interstrain competition and intraspecies cooperation, both of which involve horizontal gene transfer. Microbial species must maintain genomic integrity, yet H. pylori has evolved a complex nonlinear system for diversification that exists in dynamic tension with the mechanisms for ensuring fidelity. Here, we review these tensions and propose that they create a dynamic pool of genetic variants that is sufficiently genetically diverse to allow H. pylori to occupy all of the potential niches in the stomach.
- Subjects
HELICOBACTER pylori; BACTERIA; GRAM-negative bacteria; STOMACH; BACTERIAL transformation; GENETIC transformation
- Publication
Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2006, Vol 4, Issue 11, p826
- ISSN
1740-1526
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nrmicro1528