Study of pathogenic microbes, including bacteria, parasites, and fungi, has flourished with application of modern genetic technologies in combination with chemical approaches. Chemical-genetics has provided new insights into cellular and molecular mechanisms for host cell infection and proliferation, as well as physiological modes of action of inhibitors.

The purpose of this article collection is to take account of the rapidly advancing area of chemical-genetics in pathogenic microbial systems. We aim to highlight the cutting-edge applications of chemical genetics to explore emerging questions and understand limits. With an appropriately assembled collection, we hope to position ourselves to define the most promising areas for further development and points of intersection with other fields.

For this article collection, we are asking for Brief Research Reports, Editorials, General Commentaries, Hypothesis and Theory articles, Methods papers, Mini Reviews, Opinions, Original Research papers, Perspectives and Reviews. We seek to address the potential of transgenic approaches for target-specific (reverse genetics) or whole-genome perturbation (forward genetics) applied in combination with chemical inhibitors, modulators, and photoaffinity probes. In particular, we are interested in chemical-genetic applications to:

1. Define the biological functions and essentiality of enzymatic or antigenic targets;

2. Discover or map cellular pathways important for host infection, potentially informed by orthogonal -omic approaches;

3. Identify novel targets for phenotypic lead compounds to accelerate drug discovery.

4. Guide screening efforts to define lead compounds for drug development.

Reflecting the dynamic nature and evolving sets of applications of chemical-genetics, we are nonetheless open to a broad interpretation of relevant themes for microbial pathogens and infection; we look forward to receiving work at the cutting-edge.

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Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

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