Amphotropism

Amphotropism or amphotropic indicates that a pathogen or parasite like a virus or a bacterium has a wide host range and can infect more than one species or cell culture line.

A virus can infect many different organisms; Covid-19 is known to be spread by humans, cats, and other mammals. Evidence exists that even a retrovirus infected humans and almost a dozen other species. [1]

Metabolic plasticity, or the ability to break down different organic compounds in order to live, assists the pathogenic bacteria Coxiella burnetii to cause Query fever in humans, and also to infect other animals. [2]‬ Genome reduction, whereby a prokaryote organism evolves to have a smaller DNA strand, allows bacteria such as C. burnetti, Chlamydia and Rickettsia that must infect cells or vacuoles, to attack different species.[3] Chlamydia can infect humans and marsupials.‬

  1. ^ Kramer, Philipp; Lausch, Veronika; Volkwein, Alexander; Hanke, Kirsten (January 1, 2016). "The human endogenous retrovirus K(HML-2) has a broad envelope-mediated cellular tropism and is prone to inhibition at a post-entry, pre-integration step". Virology. pp. 121–128. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  2. ^ Sanchez, Savannah E. (2021). "Metabolic Plasticity Aids Amphotropism of Coxiella burnetii". Infect Immun. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  3. ^ Mandel, Cameron G.; Sanchez, Savannah E.; Monahan, Colleen; Phuklia, Weerawat; Omsland, Anders (March 21, 2024). "Metabolism and physiology of pathogenic bacterial obligate intracellular parasites". Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. Retrieved November 2, 2024.