 Nowadays, complete
genome sequences of almost all major bacterial pathogens
have been determined. Furthermore, genomes of same
genus but from different species, sub-species, serovar
or pathovar are available for most genera. We begin
to appreciate the enormous diversity of bacterial
genomes in terms of virulence-related genes and their
organization. Pathogenic bacteria present an astounding
arsenal of virulence factors that allow them to conquer
many different niches throughout the course of infection.
Particularly fascinating is the fact that some bacteria
species, by expression of different combinations of
virulence factors, are able to induce different diseases.
Further comparative genomic analysis will uncover
more interesting information about the biology and
evolution of the pathogens.
We therefore recently
upgraded VFDB to make it a platform for further study
of comparative pathogenomics. The major new features
provided by this release include:
How
to access the new data of comparative pathogenomics:
visit the individual page of any pathogen you are interested
in and follow the link provided in the page. Or alternatively,
visit the status
page of comparative data and choose the pathogen
you are interested in.
Definitions:
A bacterial pathogen is usually defined as
any bacterium that has the capacity to cause disease.
Its ability to cause disease is called pathogenicity.
Virulence provides a quantitative measure of the
pathogenicity or the likelihood of causing disease.
Virulence factors refer to the properties
(i.e., gene products) that enable a microorganism
to establish itself on or within a host of a particular
species and enhance its potential to cause disease.
Virulence factors include bacterial toxins, cell surface
proteins that mediate bacterial attachment, cell surface
carbohydrates and proteins that protect a bacterium,
and hydrolytic enzymes that may contribute to the
pathogenicity of the bacterium.
About VFDB:
VFDB is an integrated
and comprehensive database of virulence factors for
bacterial pathogens (also including Chlamydia
and Mycoplasma). You can visit the status
page to know the current statistics of the entire
database.
The motivation for
constructing VFDB was twofold:
First, to provide in-depth coverage major virulence
factors of the best-characterized bacterial pathogens,
with the structure features, functions and mechanisms
used by these pathogens to allow them to conquer new
niches and to circumvent host defense mechanisms,
and cause disease.
Second, to provide current knowledge of the wide variety
of mechanisms used by bacterial pathogens for researchers
to elucidate pathogenic mechanisms in bacterial diseases
that are not yet well characterized and to develop
new rational approaches to the treatment and prevention
of infectious diseases.
Documents:
Database conventions
for text search and explanation of figure legends
Frequently asked questions
Reference:
Yang J, Chen LH, Sun LL, Yu J and Jin Q, 2008. VFDB 2008 release: an enhanced web-based resource for comparative pathogenomics. Nucleic
Acids Res. 36(Database issue):D539-D542. [Full text] [PDF]
Chen LH, Yang J, Yu J, Yao ZJ, Sun LL, Shen Y and Jin Q, 2005. VFDB: a reference database for bacterial virulence factors. Nucleic Acids Res. 33(Database issue):D325-D328. [Full text] [PDF]
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