Yersinia pestis is the aetiological agent of plague, a disease of humans that has potentially devastating consequences. Evidence indicates that Y. pestis evolved from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, an enteric pathogen that normally causes a relatively mild disease. Although Y. pestis is considered to be an obligate pathogen, the lifestyle of this organism is surprisingly complex. The bacteria are normally transmitted to humans from a flea vector, and Y. pestis has a number of mechanisms which allow survival in the flea. Initially, the bacteria have an intracellular lifestyle in the mammalian host, surviving in macrophages. Later, the bacteria adopt an extracellular lifestyle. These different interactions with different host cell types are regulated by a number of systems, which are not well characterized. The availability of the genome sequence for this pathogen should now allow a systematic dissection of these regulatory systems.
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February 2003
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Conference Article|
February 01 2003
Yersinia pestis and plague
R.W. Titball;
R.W. Titball
1
*Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, U.K.
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. (e-mail rittball@dstl.gov.uk).
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J. Hill;
J. Hill
*Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, U.K.
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D.G. Lawton;
D.G. Lawton
†Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, South Kensington, London SW7 2AY, U.K.
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K.A. Brown
K.A. Brown
†Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, South Kensington, London SW7 2AY, U.K.
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
Copyright 2003 Biochemical Society
2003
Biochem Soc Trans (2003) 31 (1): 104–107.
Citation
R.W. Titball, J. Hill, D.G. Lawton, K.A. Brown; Yersinia pestis and plague. Biochem Soc Trans 1 February 2003; 31 (1): 104–107. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/bst0310104
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