Question

Recall the steps involved in phagocytosis. Now, speculate on the consequenses if an organism had the ability to evade phagocytosis.

Answer 1

A. The steps involved in phagocytosis include , the first step is activation of the phagoytic cells like macrophages and neutrophils by the peptidoglycan and thechoic acids and other protein on the bacteria or viral coat proteins .

The second step involves the attraction of the phagocytes to the site of infection or to the the site of high chemoattractants which are produced by the bacterial cells.

next it involves the attachment of the phagocyte to the pathogenic microorganism through pattern recognition receptors and pattern associated molecular patterns.

Ingestion of the Mirobe post attachment by forming pseudopodia like structures and the ingested particle is in a structure called as phagosome.

After it is in the phagosome the cell is destroyed and killed in the phagosome using various methods .

these are the steps in phagocytosis in brief.

now the second part of the question , if the pathogen is a successful it must evade all the host responses to survive on of that the phagocytosis evasion, there are various ways by which the evasion ofphagocytosis can happen like not coming in contact with the phagocyte , preventing the release the chemoattractants , some prevent the release of the digestive enzymes inside the phagosome and others .

Now if the organism had the ability to evade phagocytosis by any of the above means or by any other way the first thing that would happen is the establishment of infection.

Infection is established very strongly without triggering any immune response or inflammation in the system.

now in a long course this might prove beneficial in terms of evolution also, if these changes are accumlated and evolved over time the virulence of the pathogen might increase making us suceptible to the infetion .