Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative, spiral shaped bacterium, that selectively and chronically infects the gastric mucosa of humans. The clinical course of this infection can range from lifelong asymptomatic infection to severe disease, including peptic ulcers, or gastric cancer. The high mutation rate and natural competence typical of this species are responsible for massive inter-strain genetic variation exceeding that observed in all other bacterial human pathogens. The adaptive value of such a plastic genome is thought to derive from a rapid exploration of the fitness landscape resulting in fast adaptation to the changing conditions of the gastric environment. Nevertheless, diversity is also lost through recurrent bottlenecks and H. pylori’s lifestyle is thus a perpetual race to maintain an appropriate pool of standing genetic variation able to withstand selection events. Another aspect of H. pylori’s diversity is a large and variable repertoire of restriction-modification systems. While not yet completely understood, methylome evolution could generate enough transcriptomic variation to provide another intricate layer of adaptive potential. This review provides an up to date synopsis of this rapidly emerging area of H. pylori research that has been enabled by the ever-increasing throughput of Omics technologies and a multitude of other technological advances.

中文翻译：

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进化到变化：人类病原体幽门螺杆菌的基因组和表观基因组变异。

幽门螺杆菌是一种革兰氏阴性螺旋形细菌，它选择性地、长期地感染人类的​​胃粘膜。这种感染的临床病程可以从终生无症状感染到严重疾病，包括消化性溃疡或胃癌。该物种典型的高突变率和自然能力是导致大量菌株间遗传变异的原因，超过了在所有其他细菌人类病原体中观察到的变异。这种可塑性基因组的适应性价值被认为源于对适应性景观的快速探索，从而快速适应胃环境的变化条件。然而，多样性也因反复出现的瓶颈和幽门螺杆菌而丧失因此，它的生活方式是一场永恒的竞赛，以维持适当的遗传变异库，能够承受选择事件。H. pylori多样性的另一个方面是限制修饰系统的大量可变库。虽然尚未完全了解，但甲基化组进化可以产生足够的转录组变异，以提供另一层复杂的适应性潜力。这篇综述提供了对H. pylori研究这一快速新兴领域的最新概要，该领域得益于组学技术不断增加的吞吐量和众多其他技术进步。