Host specificity is the biological process by which a parasite, pathogen, symbiont, or herbivore exhibits a restricted range of host taxa that it can successfully infect, colonize, or utilize, determined by molecular recognition, physiological compatibility, and ecological interactions. It involves coevolutionary dynamics between host and associated organism, including receptor–ligand matching, immune evasion or suppression, metabolic dependence, and niche adaptation. Host specificity can be narrow (specialism) or broad (generalism) and is quantified using measures such as host range breadth and phylogenetic host distance. It shapes patterns of disease emergence, host shifts, co-speciation, and community structure, and is a central parameter in epidemiology, invasion biology, and host–microbe interaction research.
A warming climate is disrupting the delicate balance of nature. An international team of scientists led by entomologists from the Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences has found that higher temperatures significantly ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 28, 2026
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53
Australian researchers have uncovered how a particular strain of a diarrhea-causing parasite managed to infect more animal species, offering new insights into how parasitic infections emerge and spread to people.
Evolution
Jan 7, 2026
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35
Parasitic plants are notorious agricultural pests that drain nutrients from crops and cause economic losses of more than USD 1 billion due to yield losses every year. Yet these plants almost never attack themselves or closely ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 19, 2025
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28
UC Davis nematologists, including Valerie Williamson, professor emerita in the Department of Plant Pathology, and associate professor Shahid Siddique, Department of Entomology and Nematology, have long wondered how a plant-parasitic ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 19, 2025
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61
A study published in Communications Biology sheds new light on the relationship between bats and dangerous viruses. Led by researchers at the University of Oklahoma, the study shows that, contrary to widespread assumptions, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 4, 2025
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26
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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105
Human noroviruses, GII.4 strains in particular, are the chief drivers of acute viral gastroenteritis around the world, a condition for which there are no vaccines or antivirals. Understanding how these viruses enter cells ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 3, 2025
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55
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
Scientists have identified dozens of human proteins that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, depends on to replicate and spread, according to a recent study published in the journal PLOS Biology.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 7, 2025
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27
In a global study, scientists have uncovered far greater diversity and flexibility in mosquito feeding patterns than previously thought, challenging long-held assumptions about how the disease-carrying insects select their ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 20, 2025
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