Molecular Koch's Postulates Applied to Microbial Pathogenicity
Abstract
Microbial genetics and molecular cloning now permit us to routinely isolate specific genes from a variety of microbial pathogens. Obviously not all genes from pathogenic microorganisms play a role in pathogenicity or virulence. Just as Koch's postulates were formulated to identify the causal relationship between an organism and a specific disease, the notion is presented here that a form of molecular Koch's postulates is needed when examining the potential role of genes and their products in the pathogenesis of infection and disease.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The molecular Koch's postulates are a set of criteria formulated by Falkow based on Koch's postulates, to establish causation of or contribution to disease by specific genes or virulence factors found in pathogenic microbes.
“The molecular Koch's postulates are a set of criteria formulated by the microbiologist Falkow 88 based on Koch's postulates, to establish the causation of or contribution to disease by specific genes or virulence factors found in pathogenic microbes.”
From Are human endogenous retroviruses pathogenic? An approach to testing the hypothesis (2013) · cites this paper as [88]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Adaptive evolution of highly mutable loci in pathogenic bacteria
Moxon, E. R., Rainey, P. B., Nowak, M. A., & Lenski, R. E. (1994) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(00)00005-1 · Cited by 755 · see citing works
Next-generation sequencing: insights to advance clinical investigations of the microbiome
Wensel, C. R., Pluznick, J. L., Salzberg, S. L., & Sears, C. L. (2022) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci154944 · Cited by 437 · see citing works
Schierle, C. F., De la Garza, M., Mustoe, T. A., & Galiano, R. D. (2009) · Wound Repair and Regeneration · doi:10.1111/j.1524-475x.2009.00489.x · Cited by 311 · see citing works
Role of<i>PLB1</i>in Pulmonary Inflammation and Cryptococcal Eicosanoid Production
Noverr, M. C., Cox, G. M., Perfect, J. R., & Huffnagle, G. B. (2003) · Infection and Immunity · doi:10.1128/iai.71.3.1538-1547.2003 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Respiratory microbiota: addressing clinical questions, informing clinical practice
Rogers, G. B., Shaw, D., Marsh, R. L., Carroll, M. P., Serisier, D. J., & Bruce, K. D. (2015) · Thorax · doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2014-205826 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Kernodle, D. S., Voladri, R. K., Menzies, B. E., Hager, C. C., & Edwards, K. M. (1997) · Infection and Immunity · doi:10.1128/iai.65.1.179-184.1997 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Are human endogenous retroviruses pathogenic? An approach to testing the hypothesis
Young, G. R., Stoye, J. P., & Kassiotis, G. (2013) · BioEssays · doi:10.1002/bies.201300049 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
“The molecular Koch’s postulates are a set of criteria formulated by themicrobiologist Falkow [88] based on Koch’s postulates, to establish the causation of or contribution to disease by specific genes or virulence factors found in pathogenic microbes.”
Background
- Authors
- Falkow, S.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Falkow, S.
- Venue
- Clinical Infectious Diseases
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1988-08-01
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- Supplement 2
- Pages
- S274-S276
- ISSN
- 1058-4838 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-6591
- OpenAlex
- W2082345749
- Cited by
- 655
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 0.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Clinical Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Microbial infections and disease research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Endocrinology › Escherichia coli research studies
- Keywords
- microbial pathogenicity, virulence genes, pathogenesis, bacterial virulence factors
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Bacteria, Cloning, Molecular, Genes, Bacterial, Humans, Mutation, Virulence
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
