Decoding the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of bacterial virulence gene expression using single-cell approaches

Bacterial pathogenicity arises from dynamic interactions between microbial virulence determinants and host conditions, in which infection outcomes are shaped by both host immunity and phenotypic heterogeneity within clonal bacterial populations. Rather than behaving as uniform entities, bacterial populations diversify into distinct physiological states across space and time during infection. This heterogeneity stems from stochastic gene expression, environmental fluctuations, genetic variation,