The grapes of wrath

Viewed under the microscope, staphylococci can appear in 'grape-like' clusters. It is this morphological characteristic of these Gram-positive cocci that has given rise to their name; staphyle being Greek for 'a bunch of grapes'. The genus contains several species that cause infections in humans and animals, the most notorious of which is Staphylococcus aureus, a healthcare-associated pathogen with a talent for developing antibiotic resistance. Although S. aureus has attracted the lion's share of sequencing efforts within this genus, several other species have been sequenced, providing a refined view of the diversity of this genus and highlighting the common mechanisms of genome evolution that transcend taxonomic boundaries.