STAT3 and infection: Here, we investigate the roles of p38 MAPK, ERK and STAT3, the major kinases known to regulate immune responses to bacterial infection in non-senescent cells (Hobbie et al., 1997; Yu et al., 2002; Lin et al., 2003; Arbibe et al., 2007; Queval et al., 2016; Panagi et al., 2020) and propose a model of cross-regulation between these signalling pathways that is unique to senescent cells and impinges on its response to infection.