Decoding Helicobacter pylori: Genetic Secrets, Flagellar Motility, and Biofilm Mechanisms
A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 3
Special Issue Editors
Interests: bacterial motility; chemotaxis; transcriptional regulation; biofilm
Interests: microbial-host interaction; pathogenesis, immunity; metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Helicobacter pylori remains a formidable global health burden, chronically infecting half the world’s population and causing devastating outcomes—from peptic ulcers to gastric cancer—despite decades of research. Its persistence hinges on sophisticated mechanisms: genetic plasticity enabling immune evasion, flagellar motility allowing gastric colonization, and biofilm formation conferring antibiotic tolerance. Yet these very adaptations pose unresolved challenges for eradication.
In recent years, breakthroughs in genomic sequencing, structural biology, and high-resolution imaging have begun to unravel H. pylori’s survival strategies. However, critical gaps persist. We lack a unified understanding of how genetic heterogeneity drives strain-specific virulence, how flagellar torque generation navigates the gastric mucosa, and how biofilms shield this pathogen from host defenses and antimicrobials. Overcoming these hurdles is essential to designing next-generation therapeutics against increasingly resistant strains.
This Special Issue aims to consolidate cutting-edge interdisciplinary research exploring H. pylori’s unique survival strategies. We seek original and review articles addressing three interconnected pillars: (1) Genetic Secrets—including genomic diversity, adaptive mutations, virulence regulation, and host-pathogen coevolution; (2) Flagellar Motility—encompassing molecular mechanisms of flagellar assembly, chemotaxis, and motility-driven colonization; and (3) Biofilm Mechanisms—focusing on biofilm architecture, matrix biochemistry, antibiotic tolerance, and clinical persistence
Dr. Xiaolin Liu
Dr. Shuai Hu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- virulence genes
- motility
- flagella
- biofilm
- antibiotic resistance
- colonization
- Helicobacter pylori
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