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Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most cases, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host. [1] The pathogenicity of an organism—its ability to cause disease—is determined by its virulence factors.
Viral pathogenesis is the study of the process and mechanisms by which viruses cause diseases in their target hosts, often at the cellular or molecular level. It is a specialized field of study in virology. [1] Pathogenesis is a qualitative description of the process by which an initial infection causes disease. [2]
Multiple genetic elements of human-affecting pathogens contribute to the transfer of virulence factors: plasmids, pathogenicity island, prophages, bacteriophages, transposons, and integrative and conjugative elements. [13] [50] Pathogenicity islands and their detection are the focus of several bioinformatics efforts involved in pathogenomics.
Virulence factors (preferably known as pathogenicity factors or effectors in botany) are cellular structures, molecules and regulatory systems that enable microbial pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa) to achieve the following: [1] [2] colonization of a niche in the host (this includes movement towards and attachment to host cells ...
Pathogenicity is the potential disease-causing capacity of pathogens, involving a combination of infectivity (pathogen's ability to infect hosts) and virulence (severity of host disease). Koch's postulates are used to establish causal relationships between microbial pathogens and diseases.
The relationship between virulence and transmission is complex and has important consequences for the long term evolution of a pathogen. Since it takes many generations for a microbe and a new host species to co-evolve, an emerging pathogen may hit its earliest victims especially hard.
Reversion or allelic replacement of the mutated gene should lead to restoration of pathogenicity." To apply the molecular Koch's postulates to human diseases, researchers must identify which microbial genes are potentially responsible for symptoms of pathogenicity, often by sequencing the full genome to compare which nucleotides are homologous ...
The difference between an infection and a colonization is often only a matter of circumstance. Non-pathogenic organisms can become pathogenic given specific conditions, and even the most virulent organism requires certain circumstances to cause a compromising infection.