Fun quote of the conference I'm attending goes to Jan Mrazek of the University of Georgia, discussing the putative role of Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs). One prevailing thought has been that they're involved in phase variation (a defensive mechanism by which bacteria switch certain genes off and on as needed). Here's Jan's answer to his own question about whether SSRs are always indicative of phase variation in nearby genes:
"I think not, as most of these genes are essential, so it would not be useful to have phase variation unless you want to randomly kill yourself from time to time."