Host adaptation is the biological process by which a parasite, pathogen, commensal, or mutualistic organism undergoes genetic, phenotypic, and often behavioral changes that increase its fitness in association with a specific host species or host range. It typically involves selection on traits mediating host recognition, attachment, immune evasion, nutrient acquisition, and replication within host tissues or cells. Mechanistically, host adaptation may proceed through point mutations, gene gain or loss, regulatory rewiring, or horizontal gene transfer, and is shaped by host immune pressures, ecological context, and transmission routes, often leading to specialization, host shifts, or emergence of new host-specific lineages.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing challenges to global public health as harmful microbes evolve to evade these medications.
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 19, 2025
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European cuckoos lay very different eggs depending on the host species. Genetic analyses have revealed how this adaptation is inherited without leading to speciation.
Evolution
Oct 31, 2025
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Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus, evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past ...
Evolution
Oct 23, 2025
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Malaria is one of the world's most widespread and deadliest parasitic diseases. But some people may have natural protection thanks to DNA inherited from an extinct group of archaic humans known as the Denisovans. New research ...
Meerkats genetically adapt to a species-specific form of tuberculosis according to a long-term study by an international research team led by Ulm University. The scientists also found that climate change in the Kalahari Desert ...
Evolution
Sep 10, 2025
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The microscopic alliance between algae and bacteria offers rare, step-by-step snapshots of how bacteria lose genes and adapt to increasing host dependence. This is shown by a new study led by researchers from Stockholm University, ...
Evolution
Aug 29, 2025
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Salmonella Dublin is a type of bacteria that primarily infects cattle, but some strains also can adapt to infect humans. It is increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics, making it a growing public health threat, according ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 25, 2025
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27
When a disease-causing virus or other organism is transmitted from one species to another, most of the time the infection sputters and dies out. On rare occasions, the infection can perpetuate transmission in the new host ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 21, 2025
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14
In recent years, there has been growing concern over the H5N1 influenza virus. It was first identified in birds three decades ago and has now gradually found its way to humans. H5N1 is a strain of the influenza virus harboring ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 12, 2025
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65
Scientists have documented a notable case of antibiotic resistance evolving within a critically ill patient during treatment for an E. coli bloodstream infection, providing genomic evidence of how drug resistance can emerge ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 5, 2025
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