For the academic journal, see Virulence (journal).
Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host.
In most, 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.[2][3] In the specific context of gene for gene systems, often in plants, virulence refers to a pathogen's ability to infect a resistant host.[4]
The noun virulence (Latin noun virulentia) derives from the adjective virulent, meaning disease severity.[5] The word virulent derives from the Latin word virulentus, meaning "a poisoned wound" or "full of poison."[5][6] The term virulence does not only apply to viruses.
From an ecological standpoint, virulence is the loss of fitness induced by a parasite upon its host. Virulence can be understood in terms of proximate causes—those specific traits of the pathogen that help make the host ill—and ultimate causes—the evolutionary pressures that lead to virulent traits occurring in a pathogen strain.[7]
^Pirofski LA, Casadevall A (2012). "Q and A: What is a pathogen? A question that begs the point". BMC Biology. 10: 6. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-10-6. PMC 3269390. PMID 22293325.
^"MeSH - Medical Subject Headings, Karolinska Institute, 13 April 2010". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
^Biology Online (7 October 2019). "Virulence". Biology Online.
^Thrall, Peter H.; Burdon, Jeremy J. (2003). "Evolution of Virulence in a Plant Host-Pathogen Metapopulation". Science. 299 (5613): 1735–7. Bibcode:2003Sci...299.1735T. doi:10.1126/science.1080070. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 12637745. S2CID 6894315.
^ ab"virulent". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles. "vīrŭlentus". A Latin Dictionary. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of...
Virulence factors (preferably known as pathogenicity factors or effectors in botany) are cellular structures, molecules and regulatory systems that enable...
Optimal virulence is a concept relating to the ecology of hosts and parasites. One definition of virulence is the host's parasite-induced loss of fitness...
calcium influx, may also contribute to the intoxication of phagocytes. The virulence factors identified in the Bordetella are common to all three species....
they form virulence factors and as such regulate the switch from their normal growth in the intestine into virulence. The switch to virulence gives access...
by Alina Chand and Matt Ridley Virals, a novel series by Kathy Reichs Virulence, pathogen's ability to infect or damage host This disambiguation page...
accepted as conventional wisdom and was even called the law of declining virulence. It has been disproved and replaced by the trade-off model, which explains...
associations of virulence factors are the same for plant and animal infections. In both insects and plants, P. aeruginosa virulence is highly quorum...
capsule that acts as a virulence factor for the organism; more than 100 different serotypes are known, and these types differ in virulence, prevalence, and...
and, ultimately, to host cells. These effector proteins are important virulence factors, which allow the pathogen to survive inside of the host. There...
established yet. Strains that lack the virulence plasmid are unable to proliferate in macrophages. This virulence plasmid has been characterised in detail...
two specific virulence plasmids in B. anthracis, with the Ames strain expressing greater virulence compared to other strains. The virulence of B. anthracis...
normal flora E. coli, the pathogenic varieties produce toxins and other virulence factors that enable them to reside in parts of the body normally not inhabited...
infections (UTIs), meningitis, and other infections in humans. Several virulence factors are thought to contribute to E. faecalis infections. A plasmid-encoded...
treatment failure. To successfully colonize H. pylori uses many different virulence factors including oxidase, catalase, and urease. Urease is the most abundant...
food poisoning. Pathogenic strains often promote infections by producing virulence factors such as potent protein toxins, and the expression of a cell-surface...
needed] Members of the Clostridium genus exhibit a plethora of virulence factors. Common virulence factors associated with gas gangrene include alpha toxin...
The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 18th century. During this period, more than...
serial passage can be quite useful in studies that seek to alter the virulence of a virus or other pathogen. One consequence of this is that serial passage...
contribute to virulence and are found on many Gram-negative and some Gram-positive bacteria.[citation needed] P. gingivalis virulence is heavily associated...
Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Agrobacterium rhizogenes), but on expression of virulence-related genes of bacterium and on the production of compounds that can...
000 deaths annually with a mortality rate between 25 and 90%. Several virulence factors have been postulated to explain this opportunistic behaviour....
U. maydis from the host defense, and is necessary for the pathogen's virulence. Furthermore, U. maydis has a well-established recombinational DNA repair...
products may be screened for the ability to suppress bacterial virulence factors too. Virulence factors are molecules, cellular structures and regulatory systems...
The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague (AD 541–549) was an epidemic that afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, severely...
world population has latent tuberculosis (TB). M. tuberculosis has many virulence factors, which can be divided across lipid and fatty acid metabolism,...
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