Yuelan Yin

1 INTRODUCTION In recent decades, the application of chemically synthesized pesticides for controlling weeds, pests, and plant diseases in agricultural fields has achieved significant success.1-3 However, this practice has also led to serious ecological and environmental challenges as well as concerns over food safety. Botanical pesticides offer several advantages, including ease of material acquisition, favorable environmental compatibility, strong selectivity, and low resistance evolution.

Open AccessArticle by , , , , , , , , and * Key Laboratory of Oasis Agricultural Pest Management and Plant Protection Utilization, College of Agriculture, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832002, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a highly heterogeneous species and currently comprises of 4 evolutionarily distinct lineages. Here, we characterize isolates from severe ovine listeriosis outbreaks that represent a hybrid sub-lineage of the major lineage II (HSL-II) and serotype 4h. HSL-II isolates are highly virulent and exhibit higher organ colonization capacities than well-characterized hypervirulent strains of Lm in an orogastric mouse infection model.