Virulence factor
Any gene product which enhances the ability of an organism to cause disease.
Virulence gene
Slang for a gene encoding a virulence factor.
virulence. The relative infectiousness of a bacteria or virus, or its ability to overcome the resistance of the host metabolism.
Virulence. The degree of ability of an organism to cause disease.
Virus. An infectious particle composed of a protein capsule and a nucleic acid core, which is dependent on a host organism for replication.
[edit] Virulence properties
Enteric E. coli (EC) are classified on the basis of serological characteristics and virulence properties.[13] Virotypes include: ...
virulence Degree of pathogenicity of an agent; how much damage the agent can cause.
virus A submicroscopic noncellular particle composed of a nucleoprotein core and a protein shell; parasitic; will grow and reproduce in a host cell.
Bacterial virulence factors are often encoded in extrachromosomal plasmids, phages, and transposons that can be transmitted horizontally between different species or strains. Pathogenic Vibrio cholera, for example, carries a phage kappa.
Some bacteriophages contribute to the virulence of bacterial infections. Certain phages can enter an alternate life cycle called lysogeny. In this cycle, all the virus's DNA becomes integrated into the genome of the host bacterium.
Pathogenicity islands are sections of a bacterial pathogen genome which contain clusters of genes required for virulence. . Sequencing has revealed their presence in a number of pathogens, as well as similarities across species boundaries.
The speed with which parasites like bacteria and viruses can change their virulence may provide the strongest need for their hosts to have the ability to make new gene combinations.
Synonym: infectious agent, germ.
See also: disease, virulence.
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a live vaccine containing organisms or viruses that have been cultured or otherwise treated under conditions in which they lose virulence but retain the capacity to stimulate a protective immune response.
The capsule is a major virulence factor in the major disease-causing bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Nonencapsulated mutants of these organisms are avirulent, i.e. they don't cause disease.
Abstract: This genetic mechanism, employed by certain bacteria and protozoa, poses a challenge in the development of ... of antigenic variation and virulence ...
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th's experiments with strains of pneumonia bacterium, the process by which hereditary information passed from dead cells of one strain into cells of another strain, causing them to take on the characteristic virulence of the ?rst strain.
 See also: Bacteria, Cells, Organ, Trans, DNA
  
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