Microscience Ltd, 545 Eskdale Road, Winnersh Triangle, RG41 5TU, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK. j.shea@microscience.com
Signature-tagged mutagenesis is a functional genomics technique that identifies microbial genes required for infection within an animal host, or within host cells. The application of this technique to a range of microbial pathogens has resulted in the identification of novel virulence determinants in each screen performed to date, so that cumulatively several hundred genes have been ascribed a role in virulence.