title: Host specificity of bacterial pathogens.
abstract: Most pathogens are able to infect multiple hosts but some are highly adapted to a single-host species. A detailed understanding of the basis of host specificity can provide important insights into molecular pathogenesis, the evolution of pathogenic microbes, and the potential for pathogens to cross the species barrier to infect new hosts. Comparative genomics and the development of humanized mouse models have provided important new tools with which to explore the basis of generalism and specialism. This review will examine host specificity of bacterial pathogens with a focus on generalist and specialist serovars of Salmonella enterica.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Davis School of Medicine, Davis, California 95616.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bäumler
authors.forename: Ferric C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003165:Complement System Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology; D058507:Host Specificity / Q000502:physiology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D011995:Recombination, Genetic / Q000502:physiology; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D014774:Virulence / Q000502:physiology; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003165:Complement System Proteins; D007501:Iron