Listeria monocytogenes causes listeriosis, a systemic infection which manifests as bacteremia, often complicated by meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised individuals and the elderly, and fetal‐placental infection in pregnant women. It has emerged over the past decades as a major foodborne pathogen, responsible for numerous outbreaks in Western countries, and more recently in Africa. L. monocytogenes' pathogenic properties have been studied in detail, thanks to concomitant advances in biological sciences, in particular molecular biology, cell biology and immunology. L. monocytogenes has also been instrumental to basic advances in life sciences. L. monocytogenes therefore stands both a tool to understand biology and a model in infection biology. This review briefly summarises the clinical and some of the pathophysiological features of listeriosis. In the context of this special issue, it highlights some of the major discoveries made by Pascale Cossart in the fields of molecular and cellular microbiology since the mid‐eighties regarding the identification and characterisation of multiple bacterial and host factors critical to L. monocytogenes pathogenicity. It also briefly summarises some of the key findings from our laboratory on this topic over the past years.

中文翻译：

---

单核细胞增生李斯特菌，感染生物学模型。

单核细胞增生性李斯特菌引起李斯特菌病，这是一种全身感染，表现为菌血症，免疫功能低下的人和老年人常常并发脑膜脑炎，孕妇则胎胎感染。在过去的几十年中，它已成为主要的食源性病原体，在西方国家以及最近在非洲引起了无数爆发。由于生物科学特别是分子生物学，细胞生物学和免疫学的进步，已经对单核细胞增生李斯特氏菌的致病特性进行了详细研究。单核细胞增生李斯特氏菌也对生命科学的基础发展起到了促进作用。单核细胞增生李斯特菌因此，它既是理解生物学的工具，又是感染生物学的模型。这篇综述简要总结了李斯特菌病的临床和一些病理生理特征。在本期特刊中，它着重介绍了八十年代中期以来Pascale Cossart在分子和细胞微生物学领域的一些重大发现，这些发现涉及对单核细胞增生李斯特氏菌致病性至关重要的多种细菌和宿主因子的鉴定和表征。它还简要总结了过去几年来我们实验室在此主题上的一些关键发现。