**8. Conclusion**

Much progress has been made on the biology and the genomic epidemiology of diarrheagenic *E. coli* pathotypes since the development of WGS technologies. In particular, there is a notable advancement in the timely detection of outbreaks and the understanding of the population structure of some of the DEC pathotypes. However, the distinct phenotypes underlying the genomic signatures that drive the evolution of pathogenic *E. coli* are not fully understood. Large-scale genomic analyses of different *E. coli* pathotypes are scarce, hence, the genetic factors that define each pathovar and specific lineages are still underexplored. These should form the direction for future studies to better understand the evolutionary dynamics of *E. coli* pathotypes.
