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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.
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.
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]
A successful pathogen needs to spread to at least one other host, and lower virulence can result in higher transmission rates under some circumstances. Likewise, genetic resistance against the virus can develop in a host population over time. [2] [29] An example of the evolution of virulence in emerging virus is the case of myxomatosis in ...
Rhodococcus equi virulence plasmid pathogenicity island encodes virulence factors for proliferation in macrophages. The SaPI family of Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands, mobile genetic elements, encode superantigens, including the gene for toxic shock syndrome toxin, and are mobilized at high frequencies by specific bacteriophages. [10]
This image depicts the steps of pathogenic infection. [18] [19] [20] The variables involved in the outcome of a host becoming inoculated by a pathogen and the ultimate outcome include: the route of entry of the pathogen and the access to host regions that it gains; the intrinsic virulence of the particular organism
Molecular Koch's postulates are a set of experimental criteria that must be satisfied to show that a gene found in a pathogenic microorganism encodes a product that contributes to the disease caused by the pathogen. Genes that satisfy molecular Koch's postulates are often referred to as virulence factors.
Virulence (the tendency of a pathogen to cause damage to a host's fitness) evolves when that pathogen can spread from a diseased host, despite that host being very debilitated. An example is the malaria parasite, which can spread from a person near death, by hitching a ride to a healthy person on a mosquito that has bitten the diseased person.