Persistent Bacterial Infections: Commensalism Gone Awry or Adaptive Niche?
2014; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1128/9781555818104.ch1
AutoresJames P. Nataro, Martin J. Blaser, Susanna Cunningham–Rundles,
Tópico(s)Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
ResumoResearchers traditionally divide the biological relationships of equilibrium between coexisting species into three exclusive categories. The category best known to medical bacteriologists is parasitism, the biological state in which one organism benefits while the other is harmed. A second state, symbiosis, describes the situation in which both species derive benefit. The third state is commensalism, in which the host neither benefits nor is harmed. Recently, the spectrum of virulence has been categorized according to the ways in which the host facilitates the pathogenicity of the microbial biota. Ancient human populations typically consisted of small bands of perhaps several hundred individuals who interacted with other bands and tribes for purposes of warfare, commerce, and intermarriage. Researchers have classified the strategies used by the pathogen to circumvent complex host defenses as (i) sequestration, (ii) humoral evasion, and (iii) cellular evasion strategies. Certain persistent bacterial infections are characterized by the presence of a physical barrier between the microbe and the host. Careful analysis of the biology of persistence will permit new insights that can be broadly useful to science and ultimately to clinicians.
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