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Science 6 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5514, pp. 59 - 60
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060498
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Perspectives

MICROBIOLOGY:
Bacterial Population Genetics and Disease

Marc Lipsitch

Why is it that most strains of Staphylococcal aureus bacteria live harmlessly on the skin or in the nose of humans whereas a few strains become invasive and cause serious disease? In his Perspective, Lipsitch discusses new findings (Day et al.) suggesting that the very characteristics that make bacteria efficient at colonizing their hosts also render them better at invading host tissue and causing disease.

The author is in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail: mlipsitc{at}hsph.harvard.edu

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