Research

The biogeography of polymicrobial infection

A new Review article in Nature Reviews Microbiology, in the Microbial biofilms article series

Go to the profile of Magdalena Skipper
Magdalena Skipper
Editor in Chief, Nature, Nature Research, Springer Nature
Published
Like Comment

The biogeography of polymicrobial infection

Apollo Stacy, Luke McNally, Sophie E. Darch, Sam P. Brown & Marvin Whiteley

Nature Reviews Microbiology 14, 93–105 (2016)

http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v14/n2/abs/nrmicro.2015.8.html

Abstract

Microbial communities are spatially organized in both the environment and the human body. Although patterns exhibited by these communities are described by microbial biogeography, this discipline has previously only considered large-scale, global patterns. By contrast, the fine-scale positioning of a pathogen within an infection site can greatly alter its virulence potential. In this Review, we highlight the importance of considering spatial positioning in the study of polymicrobial infections and discuss targeting biogeography as a therapeutic strategy.

Go to the profile of Magdalena Skipper

Magdalena Skipper

Editor in Chief, Nature, Nature Research, Springer Nature

I am a geneticist by training. Having done research using classical genetics and molecular biology in a variety of model organisms I left the bench to become an editor, first for Nature Reviews Genetics and then Nature. I have worked with the research community as an editor, in a variety of roles, for over 17 years

You may also be interested in...