Guttman DS
Curr. Biol. 2009 Sep;19(18):R857-9
PubMed PMID: 19788881
Abstract
Virulence and avirulence genes carried on large, unstable pathogenicity islands (PAI) strongly influence the course and fate of host-pathogen interactions. A recent study shows how one such PAI can be rapidly transferred between two closely related bacteria via transformation in vivo, and how this horizontal gene transfer affects the fitness of the recipient strain.