Cards of virulence and the global virulome for humans

Through interactions with other competing organisms in soil, microbes may acquire traits that lead to virulence when they encounter animal hosts. Each soil-dwelling microbe possesses a unique combination of characteristics, including some held widely in common such as the ability to form biofilms, acquire iron, or produce proteolytic enzymes, that can contribute to virulence. Not only can soil-dwelling microbial pathogens acquire fitness traits when passing through animal hosts, these sojourns provide opportunities to change rapidly and to move between particular soil environments. The virulome for humans consists of an enormous set of traits for configuring both established and emerging pathogenic microbes.