Opinion - From pieces to patterns: evolutionary engineering in bacterial pathogens

Evolutionary microbiology is a basic science that is increasingly forming the basis for new developments in public-health microbiology. Medical advances might depend on an understanding of the conditions that are required for the emergence and maintenance of human bacterial pathogens. An understanding of the evolutionary engineering rules that lead to virulence or drug resistance - specifically with bacteria in mind - are therefore important and are examined in this article.