Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Stages of Infection

Stages of Infection

Stages of infection describe what happens to a susceptible host once a pathogen invades the human body. The stages of infection are incubation, prodromal, illness, stage of decline, and convalescence. The incubation stage is the period from exposure to a pathogen until symptoms start. The infected person is unaware of impending illness as the pathogens grow and multiply within the body. The duration may vary depending on the type of infection. The incubation period of measles averages ten to...

Transduction

Transduction

Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome...

Speciation Rates

Speciation Rates

Infection

Infection

When a pathogen enters the body and reproduces, it can cause an infection, damage body cells, and cause illness symptoms that eventually lead to disease. Therefore, its prevention requires breaking the chain of infection.
The chain begins with pathogens: bacteria, viruses, fungi, prions, or parasites such as protozoa helminths. These can be present on the skin as transient or resident flora, or they can be acquired from the environment. Identifying and treating the type of infection and...

Viral Mutations

Viral Mutations

A mutation is a change in the sequence of bases of DNA or RNA in a genome. Some mutations occur during replication of the genome due to errors made by the polymerase enzymes that replicate DNA or RNA. Unlike DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase is prone to errors because it is not capable of “proofreading” its work. Viruses with RNA-based genomes, like HIV, therefore accrue mutations faster than viruses with DNA-based genomes. Because mutation and recombination provide the raw material...

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

The geographic structure of pathogen resistance phenotypes under balancing selection.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2026

Same author

Genomic insights into antagonistic coevolution: collagen-like protein expansion and genome plasticity in the Daphnia parasite Pasteuria ramosa.

G3 (Bethesda, Md.)·2026

Same author

Waterborne transmission largely contributes to the epidemiology of a plankton parasite.

Ecology·2026

Same author

Beyond Mendel: a call to revisit the genotype-phenotype map through new experimental paradigms.

Genetics·2026

Same author

Parasites perform poorly at high host densities: an experimental test in the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2026

Same author

Rapid evolution of a large structural polymorphism during a bacterial epidemic.

Heredity·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

The Evolutionary Consequences of Stepwise Infection Processes.

Matthew D Hall¹, Gilberto Bento², Dieter Ebert³

¹School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

|June 27, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Host resistance to pathogens involves complex, multi-step processes. This study unifies cellular and evolutionary perspectives to advance understanding of disease ecology and host-pathogen coevolution.

More Related Videos

Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response

Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response

Published on: January 12, 2017

A Mouse Model for the Transition of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Colonizer to Pathogen upon Viral Co-Infection Recapitulates Age-Exacerbated Illness

A Mouse Model for the Transition of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Colonizer to Pathogen upon Viral Co-Infection Recapitulates Age-Exacerbated Illness

Published on: September 28, 2022

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response

Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response

Published on: January 12, 2017

A Mouse Model for the Transition of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Colonizer to Pathogen upon Viral Co-Infection Recapitulates Age-Exacerbated Illness

A Mouse Model for the Transition of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Colonizer to Pathogen upon Viral Co-Infection Recapitulates Age-Exacerbated Illness

Published on: September 28, 2022

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Pathology
Immunology

Background:

Host resistance to pathogens is a complex, multi-step process at the molecular and cellular levels.
Evolutionary models often simplify infection processes and host resistance genetics.
A gap exists in unifying these detailed biological mechanisms with evolutionary theory.

Purpose of the Study:

To conceptually unify detailed molecular/cellular resistance mechanisms with simplified evolutionary models.
To bridge the gap between empirical observations and theoretical frameworks in disease ecology and evolution.
To foster interdisciplinary research on host-pathogen interactions.

Main Methods:

Conceptual synthesis of molecular, cellular, and evolutionary data.
Integration of host resistance, parasite infection, and pathogen virulence concepts.
Framework development for understanding ecological immunity and defense strategies.

Main Results:

A unified perspective reveals host resistance as a multi-step cascade, not a simple trait.
This unification impacts understanding of resistance genetics, ecological immunity, and virulence evolution.
The framework enhances insights into defense portfolios and host-pathogen coevolutionary dynamics.

Conclusions:

Conceptual unification provides a more comprehensive understanding of host-pathogen dynamics.
This integrated approach is crucial for advancing research in disease ecology and evolutionary immunology.
The proposed framework offers new avenues for studying the evolution of resistance and virulence.