Molecular-genetic mechanisms of conservation of the pathogenic potential of the causative agents environments of natural-focus sapronosis

Abstract

For interepidemic periods of natural focal sapronoses, various ways of maintaining the viability of pathogens in terrestrial parasitic systems are associated with various adaptation strategies necessary for the conservation of the population. Unlike spore-forming bacteria, sapronose pathogens use stable cellular forms — a viable but uncultivated state and persistence. The implementation of these strategies is due to the influence of various stress factors of the habitat and is characterized by a decrease in metabolism, a change in the morphology and physiology of the bacterial cell, and the cessation of its replication. It is important that stable forms of cells retain virulence and, when favorable conditions come, they are again transformed into active vegetative forms. The discovery in recent years of genetic modules of bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems has made it possible to uncover complex regulatory molecular mechanisms for preserving the pathogenic potential of stable forms of pathogens of natural focal sapronoses in interepidemic periods.

Keywords

• sapronoses
• resistant cell forms of bacteria
• toxin-antitoxin genetic modules
• viable but nonculturable (vbnc) cells
• persistence