Increasing numbers of bacterial pathogens have been identified as mediators of apoptosis in vitro (1, 2). These pathogens infect many different tissues and include gram-positive and -negative bacteria as well as Mycobacteria . In this review, we analyze the role of apoptosis in bacterial pathogenesis. At least three pathogenic strategies involve programmed cell death: activation of apoptosis to...

The high plasticity of the actin cytoskeleton and its dynamics are often exploited by bacterial pathogens, during entry, and in some cases movement and dissemination of these organisms in mammalian cells. Indeed, some bacterial pathogens, including the gram-negative bacteria Salmonella , Shigella , and Yersinia and the gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes , have the capacity to induce...

With a molecular weight of 30 nitric oxide (NO) 1 is certainly one of the smallest biological molecular mediators. In mammalian cells, NO is produced along with l -citrulline by the enzymatic oxidation of l -arginine. Intensive investigation over the past two decades has demonstrated important roles of enzymatically produced NO in diverse physiological processes, many of which are relevant to u...

The interaction between host and pathogen decidedly shapes the outcome of an infection, thus understanding this interaction is critical to the treatment of a pathogen-induced infection. Although research in this area of cell biology has yielded surprising findings regarding interactions between host and pathogen, understanding of the metabolic cross talk between host and pathogen is limited. At...

Mucosal surfaces of the intestinal, respiratory, and genitourinary tracts are the most important route of entry of microbial pathogens into the host, and are important sites of microbially induced disease. Mucosal infections with microbial pathogens can result in a spectrum of disease manifestations that range from mild and self-limited to fulminant and lethal, or can be chronic and debilitatin...

Lanchier and Neuhauser have initiated the study of host-symbiont systems but have concentrated on the case in which the birth rates for unassociated hosts are equal. Here we allow the birth rates to be different and identify cases in which a host with a specialist pathogen can coexist with a second species. Our calculations suggest that it is possible for two hosts with specialist pathogens to ...