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Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that can cause disease. [1] This article focuses on the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. Most species of bacteria are harmless and many are beneficial but others can cause infectious diseases. The number of these pathogenic species in humans is estimated to be fewer than a hundred. [2]
Although the vast majority of bacteria are harmless or beneficial to one's body, a few pathogenic bacteria can cause infectious diseases. The most common bacterial disease is tuberculosis , caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis , which affects about 2 million people mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Most of the bacteria in and on the body are harmless or rendered so by the protective effects of the immune system, and many are beneficial, [4] particularly the ones in the gut. However, several species of bacteria are pathogenic and cause infectious diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy, tuberculosis, tetanus and bubonic plague.
Bacterial plant pathogens cause leaf spots, blight, and rot in many plant species. [38] The most common bacterial pathogens for plants are Pseudomonas syringae and Ralstonia solanacearum, which cause leaf browning and other issues in potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas. [38] Brown rot fungal disease on an apple.
However, many bacterial species can transfer DNA between individual cells by a horizontal gene transfer process referred to as natural transformation. [56] Some species form extraordinarily resilient spores, but for bacteria this is a mechanism for survival, not reproduction. Under optimal conditions bacteria can grow extremely rapidly and ...
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. [1] Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelope consists of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall sandwiched between an inner ( cytoplasmic ) membrane and an outer ...
For the most part, the genetic approach is the most extensive way in identifying the bacterial virulence factors. Bacterial DNA can be altered from pathogenic to non-pathogenic, random mutations may be introduced to their genome, specific genes encoding for membrane or secretory products may be identified and mutated, and genes that regulate ...
Prokaryotic genomes have typically been easier to sequence due to smaller genome size compared to Eukarya. Due to this, there is a bias in reporting pathogenic bacterial behavior. Regardless of this bias in reporting, many of the dynamic genomic events are similar across all the types of pathogen organisms.