Bacterial evolution articles from across Nature Portfolio

Populations of a single bacterial species can possess a great diversity of type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) and secreted effectors. Here, Habich et al. apply molecular population genetics to the T6SSs of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, highlighting the potential importance of T6SS intraspecific diversity in bacterial ecology and evolution.

The relative contributions of mutation rate variation, selection, and recombination in shaping genomic variation in bacterial populations remain poorly understood. Here, the authors analyze over 3,300 Yersinia pestis genomes, spanning nearly a century, to shed light on the patterns of genetic diversity and variation distribution at the population level.

Class II bacteriocins in the Streptococcus salivarius pan-genome were bioinformatically identified based on conserved sequence properties. These diverse “salivaricins” show antibacterial activity against Gram-positive pathogens.

‘Hardy’ Helicobacter pylori ecospecies shares the ancestry of ‘Ubiquitous’ H. pylori from the same region in most of the genome but has nearly fixed single-nucleotide polymorphism differences in 100 genes.

Here, the authors characterize over 100 community samples and over 100 individual strains isolated from historical and modern traditional Swiss cheese starter cultures, showing imprints of millennia-long human domestication, notably stable phenotypic traits, low species and genomic diversity and genomic decay associated with reduction of niche breadth.

This Review discusses the diversity of cell envelope architectures across major bacterial phyla and highlights conserved features found in diderm lineages.

This new study shows that the leading region of plasmids has a key role in overcoming host immunity by functioning as ‘anti-defence islands’ that protect the invading plasmid following entry.

A new engineering strategy for improving the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in Streptomyces has been developed through the analysis of genes co-evolved with biosynthetic gene clusters. This strategy has been verified in 11 Streptomyces strains to enhance production of 16,385 metabolites, showing potential applications in drug discovery and industrial production.

This study reports a bacterial antiphage protein that contains a NACHT domain, which is also found in metazoan proteins that mediate immunity and inflammation.

A recent study found that the Helicobacter pylori genome evolves during disease progression and that these genomic changes select for effective colonizers of gastric metaplasia.

A recent study uncovered the geographical origins of the Black Death pandemic, offering a new perspective on the phylogenetic polytomy that served as a foundation for the expansion of Yersinia pestis across Eurasia and North Africa more than 600 years ago.