In less than 15 years, genome sequencing and analysis has progressed from a luxury available to only the few to one widely used across academic, government, and industry laboratories. What started as the sequencing of model organisms grew into comparative genomics of a handful of related species; and today there are over 10,000 publicly available genomes for a number of species. Interestingly, many of these are foodborne pathogens, including Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes.  Genome data is increasingly being associated with available metadata, as well. These advances raise two questions that presenters will be asked to clarify: 1) What biological insights can we gain from tens of thousands of genomes that were not possible only five to six years ago? 2) How can our community leverage these foodborne pathogen-biased datasets to lead new developments, such as the linking genotype to phenotype?

Presentations