Cytoskeleton: At the Heart of Pathogen Invasion and Host Manipulation

Dear Colleagues,

A wide diversity of pathogens belonging to bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, and viruses infect and kill hundreds of thousands of humans every year. As highlighted by the recent and unprecedented pandemic our world is experiencing, pathogens directly impact our economy, food security, and public health. In this context, a better understanding of the pathways involved in pathogen invasion and replication within the host are urgently sought for developing effective intervention strategies. 

The cytoskeleton is a dynamic system of interlinked protein filaments present in all living cells. In addition to being a key cellular component for the structure and the replication of pathogens, their cytoskeleton also plays a fundamental role in the host cell invasion process. Several cytoskeletal structures have evolved so as to give rise to highly sophisticated pathogen invasion machineries for host cell traversal. It is worth noting that remodeling and manipulating the host cytoskeleton for their intracellular survival and replication is a common theme shared by many pathogens. As an example, viruses which do not have their own conventional actin or microtubule-based cytoskeleton hijack their host cytoskeleton machinery for their intracellular motility.

In this Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, we are inviting articles and reviews which address the multiple and diverse aspects of the role of pathogens and host cytoskeletons in the process of pathogenicity. We wish to compile and present the latest scientific advances covering a broad range of resolution scales and techniques highlighting the remarkable features of the cytoskeleton in the biology and pathogenicity of diverse classes of human pathogens.

Dr. Ashwani Sharma
Dr. Natacha Gaillard
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.