Dear Colleagues,

Members of the genus Shigella are responsible for shigellosis, a human gastrointestinal infection that can have symptoms ranging from moderate diarrhea to severe and potentially life-threatening dysentery. Milder symptoms often include diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps, while more severe symptoms can be fulminant dehydration with loose and scanty stools containing mucus and blood. Phylogenetically, Shigella is actually a group contained within Escherichia coli that is a strict human pathogen. The literature typically identifies this group as comprising four species: S. flexneri, S. sonnei, S. dysenteriae, and S. boydii. Bacillus dysenteriae (S. dysenteriae) was first described more than 120 years ago by Kiyoshi Shiga, but there are still no licensed vaccines, and many of the virulence mechanisms used by the pathogen remain to be fully understood. Some of the difficulties in studying this pathogen stem from the absence of a fully accepted animal model and a clear understanding of the full range of virulence factors and survival strategies used by the pathogen within the host and in nature. Despite this, Shigella has become an attractive target for understanding specialized adaptations to the host such as the use of the type III secretion system to deliver invasion factors into host cells and the subversion of the host cytoskeleton for intracellular motility and spread.

It is the goal of this Special Issue to touch upon special areas of interest related to the ubiquity of this group of pathogens, the lifestyle that is unique to this group and the molecular basis for its pathogenesis. Another goal is to consider ways to prevent the spread of shigellosis through the development of non-antibiotic therapeutics, to provide prophylactic immunity through the development of novel vaccines and to improve our ability to surveil and block the spread of these pathogens among the most vulnerable in endemic regions of the world. The importance of the research being done on this set of pathogens is underscored by the emergence of multidrug resistance, which is beginning to limit treatment options in endemic regions.

We look forward to your valuable contributions that will facilitate further developments in the field.

Prof. Dr. William D. Picking
Prof. Dr. Nicholas E. Dickenson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• virulence factors
• host-pathogen interactions
• vaccines
• model systems
• epidemiology
• transmission
• metabolism
• secretion systems