Pine wilt disease (PWD) caused by the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is one of the most devastating diseases of Pinus spp. The PWN was therefore listed as one of the most dangerous forest pests in China meriting quarantine. Virulence of the PWN is closely linked with the spread of PWD. However, main factors responsible for the virulence of PWNs are still unclear. Recently...

Virulent strains of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroups O103 and O121 are considered adulterants in beef. Two high-resolution melting (HRM) real-time PCR assays were standardized for the specific detection discrimination potentially virulent avirulent E. O121. The HRM assay offered possibility to distinguish clearly STEC O103:H2 from O103:H25. two extensively validated usin...

Despite rampant Newcastle disease virus (NDV) outbreaks in Africa for decades, the information about the genetic characteristics of the virulent strains circulating in West and Central Africa is still scarce. In this study, 96 complete NDV fusion gene sequences were obtained from poultry sampled in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, and Nigeria between 2006 and 2011. Based on ra...

Several reports have described Listeria monocytogenes strains which were nonpathogenic or weakly pathogenic, but little is known about these low-virulence strains. We found that 9 field L. monocytogenes strains were hypovirulent and 17 were avirulent, based on the number of mice contaminated and the colonization of their spleens after subcutaneous inoculation. All these strains possessed the kn...

Xanthomonas arboricola is a plant-associated bacterial species that causes diseases on several plant hosts. One of the most virulent pathovars within this species is X. arboricola pv. pruni (Xap), the causal agent of bacterial spot disease of stone fruit trees and almond. Recently, a non-virulent Xap-look-a-like strain isolated from Prunus was characterized and its genome compared to pathogenic...

Infection of domestic swine with the highly virulent Shimen strain of classical swine fever virus causes hemorrhagic lymphadenitis and diffuse hemorrhaging in infected swine. We analyzed patterns of gene expression for CSFV Shimen in swine umbilical vein endothelial cells (SUVECs). Transcription of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) C gene (VEGF-C) and translation of the correspondin...

Since the early days of immunology, it has been considered that high viru-lence and recency of isolation from pathological material were essential attributes of strains of bacteria to be used in production of superior immunizing agents. In spite of a surprising paucity of supporting factual information this concept has pesisted. Perhaps in no field of investigative immunology has the theory of ...

Diaporthe helianthi is a fungus pathogenic to sunflower. Virulent strains of this fungus cause stem canker with important yield losses and reduction of oil content. Here we present the first draft whole-genome sequence of the highly virulent isolate D. helianthi strain 7/96, thus providing a useful platform for future research on stem canker of sunflower and fungal genomics. The genome sequence...

UNLABELLED Footrot is a contagious, debilitating disease of sheep, causing major economic losses in most sheep-producing countries. The causative agent is the Gram-negative anaerobe Dichelobacter nodosus. Depending on the virulence of the infective bacterial strain, clinical signs vary from a mild interdigital dermatitis (benign footrot) to severe underrunning of the horn of the hoof (virulent ...

We modified the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) glycoprotein of the virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain Banjarmasin/010/10 (Ban/010) by adding C-terminal extensions similar to those found in certain avirulent NDV strains. Extension of the 571 aa wt Ban/010 HN protein to 577 and 616 aa by removal of one or two translational stop codons moderately reduced HN function and viral pathoge...