The evolution of Brucella as a model intracellular pathogen

Brucella species are intracellular bacterial pathogens that cause brucellosis, one of the most common zoonoses worldwide. This review traces how Brucella, first discovered in the 19th century through investigations of human and bovine disease, became a modern experimental model system. Work on Brucella has illuminated how intracellular bacteria evade and adapt to host defenses and how they remodel host cell biology to establish a replicative niche. It has also yielded insights that extend beyond pathogenesis into bacterial cell envelope architecture and development. Though long regarded as a small, homogeneous group of mammalian pathogens, the genus has expanded in recent years as "non-classical" Brucella have been isolated from unexpected animal hosts, opening new opportunities to understand the fascinating host preferences and evolutionary history of these closely related Alphaproteobacteria. More than a century after their discovery, Brucella species remain versatile models for the study of intracellular infection, bacterial cell biology, and physiology, and the evolution of host association.