Overview of mechanisms and biological consequences of horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of pathogenicity.

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.