The study of virulence properties of bacterial pathogens comprises the crossroads of different bioscience disciplines: identification of virulence factors, physiopathology, animal models of infection and disease, molecular typing, antibiotic resistance, immunology and omics disciplines, and translating lab research into clinical practice amongst others. The knowledge in this field has increasingly grown since the first half of the 20th century, which allowed us to better fight against pathogens that affect humans, animals, and plants. Moreover, the knowledge of the pathogenic mechanisms of bacteria has advanced significantly since the advent of modern molecular and cellular biology.

While diseases caused by these bacteria have higher prevalence in the developing countries, most of the research has been performed in developed countries. In this special issue, we are calling for papers originated by research teams working in the developing or underdeveloped countries, in order to show the significant contribution of developing countries to the advancement of our understanding in this field. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Identification and analysis of bacterial virulence factors
• Physiopathogenic mechanisms
• Development and evaluation of animal models
• Molecular typing and phylogeny of pathogenic bacteria
• Immune response against virulence factors
• Comparative genomics of pathogenic bacteria
• Genomic, transcriptomic, lipidomic, interactomic, and metabolomic research of pathogenic bacteria
• Vaccines and nonvaccine strategies to prevent bacterial diseases
• Human, animal, and plant pathogenic bacteria

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/infectious.diseases/bvi/ according to the following timetable: