This review is based on the opening lecture I was honored to give during the 9 th International Symposium on Yersinia in Lexington, Kentucky in October 2006. I present some topics that have been close to my interest during the past 25 years with some historical anecdotes. For example, how detection of intervening sequences in Y. enterocolitica rDNA genes resulted in development of microbial diagnostic applications. How the adhesin YadA was detected and named and what do we know of its function

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... ow? What was the first pseudogene sequenced in Y. pestis? I will also discuss Yersinia lipopolysaccharide, bacteriophages and serum resistance mechanisms on which we have worked on lately.