P. Davis

TL;DR: The genome of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), which contains the smallest number of protein-coding genes yet recorded for a eukaryote, is sequenced and highly conserved genes important for eukARYotic cell organization including those required for the cytoskeleton, compartmentation, cell-cycle control, proteolysis, protein phosphorylation and RNA splicing are identified.

TL;DR: A proteome-based phylogeny shows that the amoebozoa diverged from the animal–fungal lineage after the plant–animal split, but Dictyostelium seems to have retained more of the diversity of the ancestral genome than have plants, animals or fungi.

TL;DR: The genome sequence is sequenced of a S. typhi (CT18) that is resistant to multiple drugs, revealing the presence of hundreds of insertions and deletions compared with the Escherichia coli genome, ranging in size from single genes to large islands.

TL;DR: The evidence of ongoing genome fluidity, expansion and decay suggests Y. pestis is a pathogen that has undergone large-scale genetic flux and provides a unique insight into the ways in which new and highly virulent pathogens evolve.

TL;DR: The complete genome sequence of a serogroup A strain of Neisseria meningitidis, Z2491, is determined and the most notable feature of the genome is the presence of many hundreds of repetitive elements, ranging from short repeats, positioned either singly or in large multiple arrays, to insertion sequences and gene duplications of one kilobase or more.