Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being pathogenic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or state of being capable of causing disease.
  • noun The quality or state of originating or producing disease.
  • noun biology : The quality of an organism to inflict damage on the host.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Before these new culture experiments had progressed very far, a very marked change in pathogenicity was observed in the Asibi virus grown in the medium, the tissue component of which was chick embryo containing minimal amounts of nervous tissue.

    Max Theiler - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • Most of these virulence genes are organized within particular regions of the genome, termed pathogenicity islands, which are regulated by complex regulatory networks: the delicate balance of expression of many genes acting at the correct time in the correct location

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Fàbrega et al. 2009

  • The risk of sequence mutations which cause an increase in pathogenicity, meaning an escalation in the health threat of the virus, demands fast and reliable methods for in-depth full-length sequence analysis to prevent spread of the disease.

    GEN News Highlights 2009

  • Bacteria always control pathogenicity with quorum sensing.

    Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" Bonnie Bassler 2009

  • Of course, I've also told you that one of the important things they do is to initiate pathogenicity using quorum sensing.

    Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" Bonnie Bassler 2009

  • How easily a germ causes disease, and how readily it spreads, describes pathogenicity.

    Jeff Schweitzer: Understanding the Threat of a Flu Pandemic 2009

  • With those two primary characteristics of pathogenicity and virulence we have four significant possibilities when we encounter a new bug: highly pathogenic and highly virulent; highly pathogenic and mildly virulent; mildly pathogenic and highly virulent; and mildly pathogenic and mildly virulent.

    Jeff Schweitzer: Understanding the Threat of a Flu Pandemic 2009

  • Of course, I've also told you that one of the important things they do is to initiate pathogenicity using quorum sensing.

    Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" Bonnie Bassler 2009

  • Scientists describe a disease using two primary characteristics: pathogenicity and virulence.

    Jeff Schweitzer: Understanding the Threat of a Flu Pandemic 2009

  • Bacteria always control pathogenicity with quorum sensing.

    Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" Bonnie Bassler 2009

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  • "Davaine's series of experiments marked the first demonstration of a phenomenon that became known as 'passage.' This phenomenon reflects an organism's ability to adapt to its environment. When an organism of weak pathogenicity passes from living animal to living animal, it reproduces more proficiently, growing and spreading more efficiently. This often increases virulence."

    —John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 177

    February 14, 2009