Microbial Ecology in States of Health and Disease: Workshop Summary
Microbial Ecology in States of Health and Disease: Workshop Summary Eileen R. Choffnes, LeighAnne Olsen, and Alison Mack
2014 | ISBN: 0309290627 | 548 pages | PDF | 47,8 MB
2014 | ISBN: 0309290627 | 548 pages | PDF | 47,8 MB
Individually and collectively, resident microbes play important roles in host health and survival. Shaping and shaped by their host environments, these microorganisms form intricate communities that are in a state of dynamic equilibrium. This ecologic and dynamic view of host-microbe interactions is rapidly redefining our view of health and disease. It is now accepted that the vast majority of microbes are, for the most part, not intrinsically harmful, but rather become established as persistent, co-adapted colonists in equilibrium with their environment, providing useful goods and services to their hosts while deriving benefits from these host associations. Disruption of such alliances may have consequences for host health, and investigations in a wide variety of organisms have begun to illuminate the complex and dynamic network of interaction - across the spectrum of hosts, microbes, and environmental niches - that influence the formation, function, and stability of host-associated microbial communities.