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Illuminating vital surface molecules of symbionts in health and disease

Journal Article

The immunomodulatory surface molecules of commensal and pathogenic bacteria are critical to microorganisms' survival and the host's response1,2. Recent studies have highlighted the unique and important responses elicited by commensal-derived surface...

Mining the Human Gut Microbiota for Immunomodulatory Organisms

Journal Article

Within the human gut reside diverse microbes coexisting with the host in a mutually advantageous relationship. Evidence has revealed the pivotal role of the gut microbiota in shaping the immune system. To date, only a few of these microbes have been shown...

Moving beyond microbiome-wide associations to causal microbe identification

Journal Article

Microbiome-wide association studies have established that numerous diseases are associated with changes in the microbiota. These studies typically generate a long list of commensals implicated as biomarkers of disease, with no clear relevance to disease...

How colonization by microbiota in early life shapes the immune system

Journal Article

Microbial colonization of mucosal tissues during infancy plays an instrumental role in the development and education of the host mammalian immune system. These early-life events can have long-standing consequences: facilitating tolerance to environmental...

Veggies and Intact Grains a Day Keep the Pathogens Away

Journal Article

In this issue of Cell, Desai et al. compare how dietary fiber affects the gut microbiota and susceptibility to disease. They find that a fiber-free diet promotes mucus-degrading bacteria and susceptibility to Citrobacter rodentium infection.

In vivo imaging and tracking of host-microbiota interactions via metabolic labeling of gut anaerobic bacteria

Journal Article

The intestine is densely populated by anaerobic commensal bacteria. These microorganisms shape immune system development, but understanding of host-commensal interactions is hampered by a lack of tools for studying the anaerobic intestinal environment. We...

Deciphering the tête-à-tête between the microbiota and the immune system

Journal Article

The past decade has witnessed an explosion in studies--both clinical and basic science--examining the relationship between the microbiota and human health, and it is now clear that the effects of commensal organisms are much broader than previously...

An intestinal commensal symbiosis factor controls neuroinflammation via TLR2-mediated CD39 signalling

Journal Article

The mammalian immune system constitutively senses vast quantities of commensal bacteria and their products through pattern recognition receptors, yet excessive immune reactivity is prevented under homeostasis. The intestinal microbiome can influence host...

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells mediate anti-inflammatory responses to a gut commensal molecule via both innate and adaptive mechanisms

Journal Article

Polysaccharide A (PSA), the archetypical immunomodulatory molecule of the gut commensal Bacteroides fragilis, induces regulatory T cells to secrete the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10). The cellular mediators of PSA's immunomodulatory...

Sphingolipids from a symbiotic microbe regulate homeostasis of host intestinal natural killer T cells

Journal Article

Coevolution of beneficial microorganisms with the mammalian intestine fundamentally shapes mammalian physiology. Here, we report that the intestinal microbe Bacteroides fragilis modifies the homeostasis of host invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells by...

The atypical lipopolysaccharide of Francisella

Journal Article

Bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) are ubiquitous molecules that are prominent components of the outer membranes of most gram-negative bacteria. Genetic and structural characterizations of Francisella LPS have revealed substantial differences when...

Resident commensals shaping immunity

Journal Article

All animals coexist with myriad commensal microorganisms in a symbiotic relationship that plays a key role in health and disease. Continuous commensal-host interactions profoundly affect the development and regulation of the host's immune system. The...