Taking the first steps towards infection

摘要

Every journey has a beginning, and similarly each infection must begin somewhere and somehow. When initiating an infection, the microbe must get to its host; it might need to attach to the host or breach a barrier, engage a particular host pathway to enact virulence mechanisms, or overcome factors that the host immune response sends its way. This themed issue of Trends in Microbiology covers this crucial time at the beginning of an infection including the first steps of how a microbial infection is initiated in the host. The reviews in this issue discuss the initiation of infection from a pathogenesis perspective, including the host response, and the intricate molecular mechanisms and cellular biology that occur during this timeframe.