Correction: Vol. 12, No. 6

aquatic and atmospheric environments. Other highly topical issues are the evolutions of toxins, secretion systems, and antibiotic resistance. In the third section, the 4 chapters extensively discuss the evolution of selected groups of microbial pathogens: group A Streptococcus and Staphylococcus aureus; enteric pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, and Yersinia spp.; Mycobacterium spp.; and fungal pathogens such as Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. The authors provide rich detail of molecular variation within and between populations of these species and describe how patterns of population genetic variation have contributed to our understanding of the evolution of virulence and virulence factors in these pathogens. I have no major criticism of what is included in this book; rather, I note what is absent, which could have made the book more comprehensive. The first is an overall evolutionary framework of the distribution of microbial pathogens on the phylogenetic tree. Such a macro-evolutionary framework would showcase the nonrandom patterns of the distribution of human pathogens among major phylogenetic groups of microorganisms. Second, although base substitutions, insertions and deletions, homologous recombination, and lateral gene transfer are discussed throughout the book, a generalized quantitative review of the relative contributions of these processes during the evolution of certain groups of microbial pathogens (e.g., E. coli) would have been highly informative. These processes are fundamental to the evolution of all groups of organisms, and the analysis of the unparalleled datasets in microbial pathogens can teach us much about the evolution of other groups of organisms. Third, although many human pathogens are globally distributed, a substantial number show geographic specificity and endemism. Therefore, the spatial and temporal patterns of distribution of microbial pathogens within a species and at the species level across the globe are highly relevant to the evolution of microbial pathogens. Lastly, this book is highly biased toward bacterial pathogens. Only 1 chapter deals with nonbacterial (fungal) pathogens, and no chapter discusses viral or protozoan pathogens, which are responsible for some of our biggest public health threats, e.g., HIV, influenza A, and Plasmodium falciparum. Nevertheless, this is a timely and much-needed book about the evolution of bacterial virulence and its pathogenesis. It will be a valuable resource for researchers in the field of microbial evolution and pathogenesis, senior undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty who teach medical microbiology and microbial evolution, clinical microbiologists, and infectious disease specialists.