Interplay of Infection and Microbiome

The composition and function of the animal body is now widely acknowledged to be critically linked with the numerous microscopic organisms that have a habitat within the organism. There is numerous lines of evidence that these tiny ecosystems can be critical for the local function of each tissue site, or can act as a pathogen defense system, or in some cases can be associated with disease. There is gathering evidence that the hosts diet, genotype, and lifestyle can impact on these microbial ecosytems throughout the body. The composition of the microbiota, or microbiome of the host, for humans to a myriad of animal hosts, has been the focus of recent research.

More and more it is becoming apparent that interactions between pathogenic infections and the local microbial community at the infection site is an important factor in the outcomes of diseases across humans and various animals. This Research Topic sets out to explore across the human and animal sphere how infection and microbiota interplay.

The Research Topic aims to bring together researchers from across microbiology (bacteria, viruses, and parasitology) whom are exploring how the disease presentation or pathogenesis of infections interplay with the local microbiome and impact on the host. We encourage researchers to submit findings of how the microbiome and pathogens interplay in disease. We welcome original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, methods, hypothesis, perspectives, and technology reports that make a new and substantial update to the field.