- Antoine Danchin: Génétique des Génomes Bactériens, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. adanchin@pasteur.fr
Genomics today involves the study of many genes at a time in order to gain an integrated picture of the cell or organism as a whole. This review considers the architecture and evolution of bacterial genomes. The many facets of large-scale functional investigation in a variety of bacteria and the search to find common rules in their dynamic and structural organization are discussed. Such rules could aid the understanding of common properties and essential differences corresponding to elusive functions, or of still unknown bacterial biotopes.