MICROBIAL

MECHANISM
OF
PATHOGENS
 MICROBIAL PATHOGEN
Different diseases are caused by different types of micro-
organisms. Microbes that cause disease are called pathogens,
microbial pathogens can contaminate water, food, air and other
environmental media; many different ones. An infection is the
invasion and multiplication of pathogenic microbes in an
individual or population, disease is when the infection causes
damage to the individuals as vital functions or systems, an
infection does not always result in disease.
Microbes have inhabited the earth for billions of years and may be the earliest
life forms on the planet. They live in every conceivable ecological niche—soil,
water, air, plants, rocks, and animals. They even live in extreme environments,
such as hot springs, deep ocean thermal vents, and antartic ice. Indeed
microbes, by sheer mass, are the earth’s most abundant life form and are
highly adaptable to external forces.
HOW MICROORGANISMS ENTER
HOST?
 THERE IS A CLOSE CONNECTION
BETWEEN MICROBES AND
HUMANS. EXPERTS BELIEVE ABOUT HALF OF
ALL HUMAN DNA ORIGINATED
FROM VIRUSES THAT INFECTED AND
EMBEDDED THEIR NUCLEIC ACID IN OUR
ANCESTORS’ EGG AND SPERM CELLS.
Microbes are micro-organisms that can cause diseases, entering the body in
a number of ways: - eyes, genitals skin, mouth, cuts, nose, and ears . A
number of these places where microbes can enter the body are defended.
ORGANISMS CAN SPREAD—OR BE TRANSMITTED—BY SEVERAL
ROUTES.
As soon as a virus or bacterium enters the body, we are termed infected (not
the same as being ill )– illness results from the effects these microbes have
on our body.
 HOW BACTERIAL PATHOGEN PENETRATE HOST DEFENSE?

Pathogens can evade the body’s immune responses through means that
include specialized adaptations, mutation, evolved resistance to
treatments, genetic recombination, and the production of
immunosuppressive molecules that impair immune function.
A schematic drawing of bacterial
conjugation. Conjugation diagram 1-
donor cell produces pilus. 2- pilus
attaches to recipient cell, brings the two
cells together. 3- the mobile plasmid is
nicked, and a single strand of DNA is
then transferred to the recipient cell. 4-
both cells recircularized their plasmids,
synthesize second strands, and
reproduce pili; both cells are now viable
donors.
 How capsule and cell wall components to pathogenicity?
Capsules - formed by glycocalyx material, resists hosts defenses
and prevents phagocytosis.

cell wall components - chemical substances contribute to virulence

(M protein is heat and acid-resistant/mediates attachment; waxy
lipid resists phagocytosis).
LADY LOVELACE C. DIMZON
BSBIOLOGY-2A