For many pathogens with environmental stages, or those carried by vectors or intermediate hosts, transmission is strongly influenced by pathogen, host, and vector movements across complex landscapes like this one, a mountainous area in Sichuan Province, China, where delineated roads and streams, land use, and elevation may facilitate or limit pathogen or host mobility between the two marked villages. Genetic assignment tests provide a powerful means to estimate the magnitude and direction of key movements in infectious disease systems, revealing important ecological and environmental features that influence transmission (see Remais et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002013).
Image Credit: Justin V. Remais, Emory University
Pearls
Innate Immune Sensing of DNA
PLOS Pathogens: published April 21, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001310
Research Articles
Low Diversity Cryptococcus neoformans Variety grubii Multilocus Sequence Types from Thailand Are Consistent with an Ancestral African Origin
PLOS Pathogens: published April 28, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001343
NF-κB Hyper-Activation by HTLV-1 Tax Induces Cellular Senescence, but Can Be Alleviated by the Viral Anti-Sense Protein HBZ
PLOS Pathogens: published April 28, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002025
Completion of Hepatitis C Virus Replication Cycle in Heterokaryons Excludes Dominant Restrictions in Human Non-liver and Mouse Liver Cell Lines
PLOS Pathogens: published April 28, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002029
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Interferon Antagonist NS1 Protein Suppresses and Skews the Human T Lymphocyte Response
PLOS Pathogens: published April 21, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001336
Engineered Resistance to Plasmodium falciparum Development in Transgenic Anopheles stephensi
PLOS Pathogens: published April 21, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002017
The Clostridium difficile Cell Wall Protein CwpV is Antigenically Variable between Strains, but Exhibits Conserved Aggregation-Promoting Function
PLOS Pathogens: published April 21, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002024
A Yersinia Effector with Enhanced Inhibitory Activity on the NF-κB Pathway Activates the NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 Inflammasome in Macrophages
PLOS Pathogens: published April 21, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002026
A New Model to Produce Infectious Hepatitis C Virus without the Replication Requirement
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001333
On Being the Right Size: The Impact of Population Size and Stochastic Effects on the Evolution of Drug Resistance in Hospitals and the Community
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001334
HYR1-Mediated Detoxification of Reactive Oxygen Species Is Required for Full Virulence in the Rice Blast Fungus
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001335
Human Cytomegalovirus IE1 Protein Elicits a Type II Interferon-Like Host Cell Response That Depends on Activated STAT1 but Not Interferon-γ
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002016
Engineering HIV-Resistant Human CD4+ T Cells with CXCR4-Specific Zinc-Finger Nucleases
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002020
Structure-Function Analysis of the Anopheles gambiae LRIM1/APL1C Complex and its Interaction with Complement C3-Like Protein TEP1
PLOS Pathogens: published April 14, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002023
SLO-1-Channels of Parasitic Nematodes Reconstitute Locomotor Behaviour and Emodepside Sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans slo-1 Loss of Function Mutants
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001330
The MARCH Family E3 Ubiquitin Ligase K5 Alters Monocyte Metabolism and Proliferation through Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Modulation
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001331
Bacterial and Host Determinants of MAL Activation upon EPEC Infection: The Roles of Tir, ABRA, and FLRT3
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001332
Plasmodium knowlesi: Reservoir Hosts and Tracking the Emergence in Humans and Macaques
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002015
Citrobacter rodentium is an Unstable Pathogen Showing Evidence of Significant Genomic Flux
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002018
SUMO-Interacting Motifs of Human TRIM5α are Important for Antiviral Activity
PLOS Pathogens: published April 7, 2011 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002019