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Review

Nature Reviews Microbiology 6, 419–430 (1 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1901

Microbiology in the post-genomic era

Duccio Medini , Davide Serruto , Julian Parkhill , David A. Relman , Claudio Donati , Richard Moxon , Stanley Falkow & Rino Rappuoli

Genomics has revolutionized every aspect of microbiology. Now, 13 years after the first bacterial genome was sequenced, it is important to pause and consider what has changed in microbiology research as a consequence of genomics. In this article, we review the evolving field of bacterial typing and the genomic technologies that enable comparative analysis of multiple genomes and the metagenomes of complex microbial environments, and address the implications of the genomic era for the future of microbiology.