Special Issue "Bacteriophage: Molecular Ecology and Pharmacology"
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 April 2024 | Viewed by 5412
Special Issue Editor
Interests: bacteriophage; phage-host interactions; phage ecology; phage therapy; molecular microbiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The discovery of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) in 1915 and 1917 by Frederick Twort and Felix d’Herelle respectively, resulted from the research projects that shared in modern terms both ecological and applied goals. During the decades of research that followed this seminal discovery, the attention of phage research shifted to general biology of phages though the applied aspect also remained. The ecological perspective almost vanished and returned to the stage only at the very end of XX century.
Nowadays it became clear that bacteriophages are one of the major forces that moves and shapes the fascinating landscape of microbial world and its interactions with the rest of the Biosphere population. Phages influence almost any known aspect of bacterial biology and adopt immense variety of strategies to exert their ‘hidden power’, ranging from direct killing of the bacterial cells to protecting the host populations by actively subverting the immune reactions of macroorganisms. At the same time the growing world-wide crisis caused by the rapid spread of multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens greatly revived the interest of the scientific community to bacteriophage-mediated biocontrol technologies, at the first place to phage therapy but also to phage applications in agriculture, food industry and other fields aiming to reduce the use of antibiotics outside of medical facilities.
Thus, the need for the convergence of ecological and applied approaches in bacteriophage biology directly streams from the contemporary concepts in this field. The outcome of phage therapy or phage biocontrol interventions is always a result of ecological interactions between bacteria, viruses and environment (including that of human or animal body). And the possibilities and limitations of these technologies are largely defined by molecular mechanisms of phage-host and/or phage-macroorganisms interactions.
To this special issue we are aiming to attract high-level research and review papers concerning molecular aspects of bacteriophage ecology in the broad sense of the latter term. This will include the papers on bacteriophage genomics and metagenomics in free-living or symbiotic microbial systems, mechanisms of bacteriophage host range determination, influence of bacterial physiology on interactions with viruses and other ecologically relevant research topics. The papers regarding direct phage interactions with macroorganisms, including phage pharmacokinetics issues are specially welcome.
Prof. Dr. Andrey Letarov
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- bacteriophage ecology
- bacteriophage pharmacology
- intercell communication of bacteria
- phage-host interactions
- phage-host recognition
- phage receptors
- phage therapy
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Diverse prophages of Salmonella enterica show potential role in disease and diversity
Author: Nale
Highlights: We examined 75 Salmonella genomes representing 15 important serovars. All strains harbour diverse prophages which encode abundant repertoire of virulence factors. Various close and distant genomic associations were formed among the prophages and those of other Enterobacteriaceae. Our data showed strong correlation between Salmonella prophages and numerous virulence factors and may contribute to diversity and pathogenicity of the serovars.
