Aims and scope

Gut Pathogens is a fast publishing, inclusive and prominent international journal which recognizes the need for a publishing platform uniquely tailored to reflect the full breadth of research in the biology and medicine of pathogens, commensals and functional microbiota of the gut, in the context of infections caused by gastric/enteric bacteria, viruses and other causative agents. The journal publishes basic, clinical and cutting-edge research on all aspects of the above mentioned organisms including probiotic bacteria and yeasts and their products. The scope also covers the related ecology, molecular genetics, physiology and epidemiology of these pathogens. The journal actively invites timely reports on the novel aspects of genomics, metagenomics, microbiota profiling and systems biology in the context of the infections caused by E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacters, Helicobacters, Vibrio and other important enteropathogens.

Gut Pathogens will also consider, at the discretion of the editors, descriptive studies identifying a new genome sequence of a gut pathogen or a series of related microbial pathogens or commensals (such as those obtained from new hosts, niches, settings, outbreaks and epidemics) and those obtained from single or multiple hosts at one or different time points (chronological evolution).

Short articles that briefly and concisely describe the isolation and characterization of new pathogenic species or variants thereof, or a new strain or type based on sequence analysis or association studies of host and pathogen genetic repertoires or polymorphisms (functional molecular infection epidemiology) are also welcome.

Topical areas include, but are not limited to:

• Microbial etiology of gut ailments
• Gut invasion mechanisms
• Microbial toxins and virulence factors in infections of the gut and associated glands - liver, pancreas
• Bacterial adaptation to gut niches and evolution of pathogenicity
• Biology and ecology of gut commensals and microbiota in health and disease, in the context of infection and immunity
• Biology and ecology of probiotic organisms in the context of infections
• Host susceptibility or resistance to gut pathogens
• Immune mechanisms of gut infections
• Etiology of inflammatory bowel diseases and the underlying pathogen triggers
• Molecular and serological diagnosis of gut infections
• Treatment and drug resistance mechanisms
• Molecular epidemiology, transmission dynamics and evolutionary genetics of gut pathogens
• Vaccines for gut pathogens
• Comparative and veterinary infectious diseases of the gut
• Pathogenesis of bacterial, parasitic and viral infections of the gut
• Genome sequencing, comparative genomics and systems biology in the context of gastric-enteric pathogens
• Microbiota analysis, metagenomics and gut microbiomes in the context of infections of the gut