Bacterial genome plasticity and its impact on adaptation during persistent infection

Bacterial pathogens with the ability to cause persistent infection have different strategies to withstand the induction of host immune responses and to successfully establish long-term colonization. In case of asymptomatic bacteriuria and other persistent infections, prolonged growth in the host is accompanied with genomic alterations that result in e.g., bacterial attenuation thus contributing to bacterial adaptation to their host niche and a reduced activation of host immune responses. The accumulating amount of information regarding bacterial adaptation during persistent infection helps to increase our understanding of driving forces of bacterial adaptation in vivo as well as of factors that contribute to symptomatic infection. (C) 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.