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Molecular Biology of Host and Pathogen Interactions: 3rd Edition

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 426

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (UNL), 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: biological sciences; health sciences; infectious diseases; malaria; parasite–host interactions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a continuation of our previous Special Issue, titled “Molecular Biology of Host and Pathogen Interactions (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/92H71Y3X8A)” and “Molecular Biology of Host and Pathogen Interactions: 2nd Edition (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/OBXGSNR0EN)”.

Every living being is constantly exposed to microorganisms, and most of the time, this has no effects on their health, with diseases being the exception and not the rule. However, when a host–microorganism interaction results in damage to the host, the microorganism becomes a pathogen with implications for both human and animal health.

Microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites sustain themselves within host cells or organs on a molecular and cellular level and establish molecular mechanisms to invade, proliferate, and exploit cells for their survival. The understanding of these interactions is vital to the identification of biomarkers in the diagnosis or individualized therapy of infections and is desirably driven by several independent areas of research, such as molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, cell biology, and all the omics.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight processes and mechanisms involved in the crosstalk between infectious agents and their hosts that may contribute at a later stage to the design of novel treatment or prevention strategies in the continuous fight against infectious diseases. We invite you to submit research articles, reviews, or short communications that, together, may contribute to improving the knowledge about this growing area of research.

Dr. Ana Paula Arez
Guest Editor

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • microbe
  • pathogen
  • virus
  • bacteria
  • parasite
  • fungi
  • infection
  • disease
  • interaction
  • host response

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

20 pages, 7485 KiB  
Review
DNA Satellites Impact Begomovirus Diseases in a Virus-Specific Manner
by Vincent N. Fondong
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(12), 5814; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26125814 - 17 Jun 2025
Viewed by 326
Abstract
Begomoviruses infect many crops and weeds globally, especially in the tropical and subtropical regions, where there are waves of epidemics. These begomovirus epidemics are frequently associated with three DNA satellites: betasatellites, alphasatellites, and deltasatellites. Except for the origin of replication, these satellites show [...] Read more.
Begomoviruses infect many crops and weeds globally, especially in the tropical and subtropical regions, where there are waves of epidemics. These begomovirus epidemics are frequently associated with three DNA satellites: betasatellites, alphasatellites, and deltasatellites. Except for the origin of replication, these satellites show no sequence identity with the helper begomovirus. Alphasatellites and betasatellites encode the α-Rep and βC1 proteins, respectively, while deltasatellites encode no proteins. α-Rep, which functions like the Rep of the helper begomoviruses, ensures alphasatellite replication autonomy, while betasatellites and deltasatellites depend wholly on the helper virus for replication. The betasatellite βC1 protein is a pathogenicity determinant and suppressor of RNA silencing. The associations between satellites and helper viruses vary, depending on the virus and the host, and the roles of these satellites in disease development are an active area of investigation. This review highlights current information on the role of DNA satellites in begomovirus diseases and examines commonalities and differences between and within these satellites under prevailing conditions. Furthermore, two episomes, SEGS-1 and SEGS-2, associated with cassava mosaic geminiviruses, and their possible status as DNA satellites are discussed. DNA satellites are a major factor in begomovirus infections, which are a major constraint to crop production, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. Thus, areas for future research efforts, as well as implications in the biotechnological management of these viruses, are discussed in this review. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Biology of Host and Pathogen Interactions: 3rd Edition)
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