How do microorganisms become pathogenic?

Answer 1

Interesting question! "Yes" is the simple answer. It depends on where the bug is living. For example. E. coli is present in huge numbers in the gut and has no ill effects (except some strains such as o156) and is considered normal flora FOR THE GUT but if these bugs were to get into, saya wound and multiply, they would be considered pathogenic. Worse still if they got into the blood circulation in large numbers such as during an operation they could, if not treated with antibiotics, lead to a very serious case of sepsis

Answer 2

Pathogenicity of any microorganism depends on one or two structures present in microbe like in cell wall or membrane or any other organalle and they are coded by some set of genes in DNA of that microbe which can be able to cause disease and the microbe is called pathogenic now the prokaryotic espeicially bacterial strains have capability

to transfer the genetic material horizontally and vertically now when the gene code for pathogenic str in one microbe is transfered by conjugation or transformation or transduction then the non-pathogenic microbe can alos become pathogenic due to contaion that gene sequence

e.g. E.coli is non-pathogenic but its some strians are pathogenic which have genes of species like Shegella

Answer 3

Normal flora, if disrupted, can multiply and turn into pathogens that cause infection. It does not become a disease, but rather becomes an infection. An example of normal flora becoming an infection is when women douche too frequently and normal yeast flora multiples and becomes a vaginal yeast infection.

Answer 4

This term is useful when distinguishing the life cycle of an organism. When an organism exists, for example, in an adult phase, it maybe is not dangerous to a species that is hosting it. When the adult spawns eggs, which become larvae, maybe at that point it is a pathogen, because its existence either destroys the tissue of the host or weakens the immune system of that organism because it is taking nutrients away from it.

Think of it another way: There is a parasite in pigs, probably originating from rats, which a pig might eat. This parasitic worm is called Trichinella spiralis. If the pig is slaughtered and sold as pork, it is not a pathogen if the meat is cooked. However, if it is not sufficiently cooked, the condition of having debilitating anemia, migrating larvae throughout the primary host's tissues (the human) and the painful hardening cysts that the body produces in an attempt to contain it, are symptoms of the disease known as trichinosis.

Answer 5

Microorganisms become pathogenic when they acquire the ability to cause disease in humans. This can occur in a variety of ways. The first is by random mutation, which is probably how E. coli O157:H7 suddenly became a serious human pathogen. Another is by bacterial conjugation, during which genetic material is shared between bacteria; this is a major factor in the development of antibiotic resistence in Gram negative bacteria.

Answer 6

When humans disrupt the normal flora on their bodies, microorganisms can multiply and become pathogens. One of the best examples is when women douche too frequently, and change the normal Ph in the vagina. Yeast is one of the main organisms that then multiply. Another example is that the normal flora can sometimes multiply with certain diseases, such as Diabetes. Again, yeast is a big culprit.