Evolution_of_pathogenesis_in_Streptococcus_suis

Bacterial pathogens very often have smaller genomes and fewer genes than their nearest non-pathogenic relatives. However, despite much speculation, it remains unclear why this pattern holds. Streptococcus suis has made several recent and independent transitions to pathogenicity, each associated with genome reduction. This research involves sampling whole genomes of global S. suis populations, developing new statistical models and collating functional data in order to conduct the first large-scale tests of the various hypotheses linking genome reduction and pathogenicity.