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Biology  /  Bio 1965  ·  Atom · ~20 seconds

Bacterial Disease Mechanism, Overview

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A pathogenic bacterium causes disease by damaging tissue, releasing toxins, or triggering a harmful immune response, not by any single shared mechanism.

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Some bacteria damage tissue by direct invasion; Clostridium botulinum instead causes illness mainly through a released toxin.

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Only a small fraction of prokaryotes are pathogens — most bacterial species cause no disease in humans.