The Seventh International Conference on the Genetics of Streptococci, Lactococci, and Enterococci, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology, was held 18 to 21 June 2006, overlooking the sea in Saint Malo, Bretagne, France. The conference began in 1981 as the Streptococcal Genetics meeting, at a time when the genera Enterococcus and Lactococcus were still classified as Streptococcus spp. Through the years, this meeting has served as a quadrennial platform to showcase cutting-edge advances in the dissection of the underlying genetics of growth control, metabolism, extrachromosomal elements, substrate utilization, competence development, antibiotic resistance, and virulence of this fascinating group of organisms. The penultimate meeting, held in 2002, focused heavily on then-recent advances made through bacterial and phage genome-sequencing projects. The meeting in Saint Malo highlighted the remarkable progress over the last 4 years in the areas of functional and comparative genomics that was spawned by the large-scale sequencing projects completed early this century. Some of these advances are summarized in this review of the oral sessions of the programs, and additional reports published in this issue of the Journal of Bacteriology provide a more detailed glimpse of the tremendous insights gained through genetic analysis of this unique group of eubacteria.