Research progress in Shigella in the postgenomic era

Gram-negative,facultative intracellular anaerobes of the genus Shigella,the principal etiologic agents of shigellosis,continue to pose a threat to public health. Shigellosis causes 1.1 million deaths with over 164 million annual cases. The Shigella spp. can be divided into four serogroups:Shigella dysenteriae,Shigella flexneri, Shigella boydii and Shigella sonnei. The completion of seven Shigella genome sequences of representative strains from each of the Shigella species has introduced an era of whole-genome study.This paper reviews contemporary understanding of genomics,transcriptomics,proteomics and the structural biology of Shigella.