Forensic analysis in bacterial pathogens

Bacterial pathogens have been and continue to be important targets for microbial forensics. They also represent distinct biological entities that have their own unique biology, genomes, and population genetics. The precise identification of the bacterial agent (genus and species) and well as the particular strain has recently focused on genomic analysis. In a microbial forensic analysis, this can involve multiple hierarchical levels ranging down to a single production batch of cells. A combination of SNPs and hypervariable loci has proven useful in the past, though more and more it is simple a whole genome analysis of SNPs. The population genomics of Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis, Brucella sp., Burkholderia pseudomallei and Clostridium botulinum are presented in a microbial forensics context.