and Implications The data indicated a positive correlation exists between in vitro adherence capability and in vivo pathogenicity of M. hyopneumoniae clones. Results obtained with the in vitro microtiter plate adherence assay indicated that it can be used to estimate the pathogenicity of strains. However, low adherence capability and possibly pathogenicity were not stable as indicated by the sh...

Current practice by clinical diagnostic laboratories is to utilize online prediction programs to help determine the significance of novel variants in a given gene sequence. However, these programs vary widely in their methods and ability to correctly predict the pathogenicity of a given sequence change. The performance of 17 publicly available pathogenicity prediction programs was assayed using...

The coincidental evolution hypothesis predicts that traits connected to bacterial pathogenicity could be indirectly selected outside the host as a correlated response to abiotic environmental conditions or different biotic species interactions. To investigate this, an opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Serratia marcescens, was cultured in the absence and presence of the lytic bacteriophage PPV (...

Aspergilli represent unique pathogens. Based on their saprophytic life style they are able to colonize a variety of ecological niches, among them the immunocompromised individual. Distinct fungal attributes that play a role in pathogenicity of aspergilli have been described, and primary metabolism indisputably has to be taken into account for contributing to the virulence potential of this fung...

Emerging outbreaks of newly found, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N8) viruses have been reported globally. Previous studies have indicated that H5N8 pathogenicity in mice is relatively moderate compared with H5N1 pathogenicity. However, detailed mechanisms underlying avian influenza pathogenicity are still undetermined. We used a high-throughput RNA-seq method to analyse host and ...

Peroxisomes are required for pathogenicity in many phytopathogenic fungi, but the relationships between fungal pathogenicity and peroxisomal function are not fully understood. Here, we report the identification of a T-DNA insertional mutant C445 of Magnaporthe oryzae, which is defective in pathogenicity. Analysis of the mutation confirmed an insertion into the gene MoPEX1, which encodes a putat...

Peroxisomes are present ubiquitously and make important contributions to cellular metabolism in eukaryotes. They play crucial roles in pathogenicity of plant fungal pathogens. The peroxisomal matrix proteins and peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) are synthesized in the cytosol and imported post-translationally. Although the peroxisomal import machineries are generally conserved, some species-...

Nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants (nsSNVs) constitute about 50% of known disease-causing mutations and understanding their functional impact is an area of active research. Existing algorithms predict pathogenicity of nsSNVs; however, they are unable to differentiate heterozygous, dominant disease-causing variants from heterozygous carrier variants that lead to disease only in the homozyg...

The virulence properties of Salmonella enterica are largely encoded within a set of horizontally acquired gene blocks termed pathogenicity islands. One such pathogenicity island, SPI-1, located at centisome 63 of the Salmonella chromosome between the mutS and fhlA genes, encodes a type III protein secretion system and an iron uptake system. We have characterized the mutS-proximal border of this...

There are now hundreds of thousands of pathogenicity assertions that relate genetic variation to disease, but most of this clinically utilized variation has no accepted quantitative disease risk estimate. Recent disease-specific studies have used control sequence data to reclassify large amounts of prior pathogenic variation, but there is a critical need to scale up both the pace and feasibilit...