Augmentative releases of parasitoids may be a useful tool for the area-wide management of tephritid pests. The latter are parasitized by many wasp species, though only a few of them are relevant for augmentative biocontrol purposes. To date, nearly a...
Phytoplankton is fundamental to life on Earth. Their productivity is influenced by the microbial communities residing in the phycosphere surrounding algal cells. Expanding our knowledge on how algal-bacterial interactions affect algal growth to more...
Until recently, the only methods for finding out if a particular strain or species of bacteria could be a host for a particular bacteriophage was to see if the bacteriophage could infect that bacterium and kill it, releasing progeny phages. Establish...
The Poxviridae family is comprised of double-stranded DNA viruses belonging to nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV). Among the NCLDV, poxviruses exhibit the widest known host range, which is likely observed because this viral family has been m...
Mycobacterial infections, caused by various species within the Mycobacterium genus, remain one of the main challenges to global health across the world. Understanding the complex interplay between the host and mycobacterial pathogens is essential for...
Bacteriophage host range is a result of the interactions between phages and their hosts. For phage therapy, phages with a broader host range are desired so that a phage can infect and kill the broadest range of pathogen strains or related species pos...
The current dramatic increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria has revitalised the interest in bacteriophages as alternative antibacterial treatment. Meanwhile, the development of bioinformatics methods for analysing genomic data places high-throughp...
Understanding the role of facultative endosymbionts on the host’s ecology has been the main aim of the research in symbiont–host systems. However, current research on host–endosymbiont dynamics has failed to examine the genetic background of the host...
The respiratory tract harbours a variety of microorganisms, collectively called the respiratory microbiota. Over the past few years, alterations in respiratory and gut microbiota composition have been associated with chronic inflammatory diseases of...
Recent phylogenetic studies have transferred certain isolates from monocot plants previously included in the heterogeneous group of Pectobacteriumcarotovorum (Pc) to a species level termed Pectobacterium aroidearum. The specificity of Pectobacterium...
Utilization of a novel plant host by herbivorous insects requires coordination of numerous physiological and behavioral adaptations in both larvae and adults. The recent host range expansion of the crucifer-specialist diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella...
Bacteriophages (phages), as natural antibacterial agents, are being rediscovered because of the growing threat of multi- and pan-drug-resistant bacterial pathogens globally. However, with an estimated 1031 phages on the planet, finding the right phag...
The socially parasitic Alcon blue butterfly (Phengaris alcon) starts its larval stage by feeding on the seeds of gentians, after which it completes development in the nests of suitable Myrmica ant species. The host plant and host ant species can diff...
Influenza viruses need to use sialic acid receptors to invade host cells, and the α-2,3 and α-2,6 sialic acids glycosidic bonds linking the terminal sialic acids are generally considered to be the most important factors influencing the cr...
Virus host range, i.e., the number and diversity of host species of viruses, is an important determinant of disease emergence and of the efficiency of disease control strategies. However, for plant viruses, little is known about the genetic or ecolog...
Increased antibiotic resistance has prompted the development of bacteriophage agents for a multitude of applications in agriculture, biotechnology, and medicine. A key factor in the choice of agents for these applications is the host range of a bacte...
In nature, most plants parasitized by root hemiparasites are also colonized by mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, highlighting the prevalence of this tripartite interaction. AM colonization is generally found to improve the growth of para...
The insect gut bacteria play important roles in insect development and growth, such as immune defense, nutrient metabolism, regulating insect adaptations for plants, etc. The Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) is a destructive invasive pest that mainly feeds on...
The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in recent times has prompted the search for new and more potent antibiotics. Bacteriophages (commonly known as phages) are viruses that target and infect their bacterial hosts. As such, they a...
Aspergillus fumigatus spores initiate more than 3,000,000 chronic and 300,000 invasive diseases annually, worldwide. Depending on the immune status of the host, inhalation of these spores can lead to a broad spectrum of disease, including invasive as...
The Apicomplexa are obligate intracellular parasites responsible for several important human diseases. These protozoan organisms have evolved several strategies to modify the host cell environment to create a favorable niche for their survival. The h...
Early characterization of emerging viruses is essential to control their spread, such as the Zika Virus outbreak in 2014. Among other non-viral factors, host information is essential for the surveillance and control of virus spread. Flaviviruses (gen...
The pathogenesis of chronic wounds (CW) involves a multifaceted interplay of biochemical, immunological, hematological, and microbiological interactions. Biofilm development is a significant virulence trait which enhances microbial survival and patho...
The spread of viral pathogens both between and within hosts is inherently a spatial process. While the spatial aspects of viral spread at the epidemiological level have been increasingly well characterized, the spatial aspects of viral spread within...
Many arthropod pests of humans and other animals select their preferred hosts by recognising volatile odour compounds contained in the hosts’ ‘volatilome’. Although there is prolific literature on chemical emissions from humans, pub...
Host-specific parasites exhibit close co-evolutionary associations with their hosts. In the case of fragmented/disjunct host distribution, host-specific parasites may reflect the biogeographical history of regions and/or the role played by contacts o...
Biological invasions, resulting from deliberate and unintentional species transfers of insects, fungal and oomycete organisms, are a major consequence of globalization and pose a significant threat to biodiversity. Limiting damage by non-indigenous f...
Integrons are powerful recombination systems found in bacteria, which act as platforms capable of capturing, stockpiling, excising and reordering mobile elements called cassettes. These dynamic genetic machineries confer a very high potential of adap...
Virus infected host cells serve as a central immune ecological niche during viral infection and replication and stimulate the host immune response via molecular signaling. The viral infection and multiplication process involves complex intracellular...
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, consistently threatening public health. Conventional tuberculosis treatment requires a long-term treatment regimen and is associated with side effects. The efficacy of antitubercular...
Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that critically depend on their hosts to initiate infection, complete replication cycles, and generate new progeny virions. To achieve these goals, viruses have evolved numerous elegant strategies to subve...
Metacestodes of Echinococcus multilocularis are the causative agents of alveolar echinococcosis, a neglected, life-threatening, zoonotic disease. To study these metacestodes in vitro, a model system using a culture medium conditioned by rat hepatoma...
The influenza A virus (IAV), a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family, is a highly transmissible respiratory pathogen and represents a continued threat to global health with considerable economic and social impact. IAV is a zoonotic virus that compris...
Host-pathogen interactions are fundamental to our understanding of infectious diseases. Protein glycosylation is one kind of common post-translational modification, forming glycoproteins and modulating numerous important biological processes. It also...
Parasites attack the host insects and possibly impact the host-gut microbiota, which leads to provision of a suitable host environment for parasites’ development. However, little is known about whether and how the parasitic wasp Cotesia vestali...
Initially described a century ago by William Twort and Felix d’Herelle, bacteriophages are bacterial viruses found ubiquitously in nature, located wherever their host cells are present. Translated literally, bacteriophage (phage) means ‘b...
Three Solanaceae hosts (TSHs), S. tuberosum, N. benthamiana and S. lycopersicum, represent the three major phylogenetic clades of Solanaceae plants infected by Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight, one of the most devastating diseases ser...
The Asian longhorn beetle (ALB), Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky, is a polyphagous xylophage with dozens of reported host tree species. However, the mechanisms by which individuals locate and recognize host plants are still unknown. We summarize...
Natural hosts of most arenaviruses are rodents. The human-pathogenic Lassa virus and several non-pathogenic arenaviruses such as Morogoro virus (MORV) share the same host species, namely Mastomys natalensis (M. natalensis). In this study, we investig...
In vitro-cultured plant calli are colonized by diverse endophytes. As these endophytes are inherited from the maternal plant and appear to be highly dependent on the eco-niche of the host cells, they have been termed host-dependent endophytes (HDEs)....
Leishmania spp. (Kinetoplastida) are unicellular parasites causing leishmaniases, neglected tropical diseases of medical and veterinary importance. In the vertebrate host, Leishmania parasites multiply intracellularly in professional phagocytes, such...
During reactivation from latency, gammaherpesviruses radically restructure their host cell to produce virion particles. To achieve this and thwart cellular defenses, they induce rapid degradation of cytoplasmic mRNAs, suppressing host gene expression...
Macrocyclic hosts as prototypical receptors to gaseous and drug-like guests are crucial components in pharmaceutical research. The external guests are often coordinated at the center of these macromolecular containers. The formation of host–gue...
Virus evolution is the change in the genetic structure of a viral population over time and results in the emergence of new viral variants, strains, and species with novel biological properties, including adaptation to new hosts. There are host, vecto...
Insect host/parasitoid interactions are co-evolved systems in which host defenses are balanced by parasitoid mechanisms to disable or hide from host immune effectors. Here, we report that Pteromalus puparum venom impairs the antimicrobial activity of...
The freshwater bivalve Anodonta woodiana is native to China and widely distributed in Asia, Europe, and North America. However, natural populations of A. woodiana in China have dramatically declined recently. Several fish species have been used as po...
Begomoviruses, which belong to the Geminiviridae family, are intracellular parasites transmitted by whiteflies to dicotyledonous plants thatsignificantly damage agronomically relevant crops. These nucleus-replicating DNA viruses move intracellularly...
Antibiotic resistance is becoming a common problem in medicine, food, and industry, with multidrug-resistant bacterial strains occurring in all regions. One of the possible future solutions is the use of bacteriophages. Phages are the most abundant f...
The incorporation of biologically active host proteins into HIV-1 is a well-established phenomenon, particularly due to the budding mechanism of viral egress in which viruses acquire their external lipid membrane directly from the host cell. While th...
Parasitic isopod Ceratothoa oestroides (Cymothoidea, Isopoda) is a common and generalist buccal cavity-dweller in marine fish, recognised for its detrimental effect in fingerling and juvenile farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Although...
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