The best of all worlds: Streptococcus pneumoniae conjunctivitis through the lens of community ecology and microbial biogeography

The study of the forces which govern the geographical distributions of life is known as biogeography, a subject which has fascinated zoologists, botanists and ecologists for centuries. Advances in our understanding of community ecology and biogeography--supported by rapid improvements in next genera...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ung, Lawson (Author), Bispo, Paulo J. M. (Author), Bryan, Noelle C. (Author), Andre, Camille (Author), Chodosh, James (Author), Gilmore, Michael S. (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2020-05-21T19:55:56Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Ung, Lawson  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Bispo, Paulo J. M.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Bryan, Noelle C.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Andre, Camille  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Chodosh, James  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Gilmore, Michael S.  |e author 
245 0 0 |a The best of all worlds: Streptococcus pneumoniae conjunctivitis through the lens of community ecology and microbial biogeography 
260 |b Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute,   |c 2020-05-21T19:55:56Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125391 
520 |a The study of the forces which govern the geographical distributions of life is known as biogeography, a subject which has fascinated zoologists, botanists and ecologists for centuries. Advances in our understanding of community ecology and biogeography--supported by rapid improvements in next generation sequencing technology--have now made it possible to identify and explain where and why life exists as it does, including within the microbial world. In this review, we highlight how a unified model of microbial biogeography, one which incorporates the classic ecological principles of selection, diversification, dispersion and ecological drift, can be used to explain community dynamics in the settings of both health and disease. These concepts operate on a multiplicity of temporal and spatial scales, and together form a powerful lens through which to study microbial population structures even at the finest anatomical resolutions. When applied specifically to curious strains of conjunctivitis-causing, nonencapsulated Streptococcus pneumoniae, we show how this conceptual framework can be used to explain the possible evolutionary and disease-causing mechanisms which allowed these lineages to colonize and invade a separate biogeography. An intimate knowledge of this radical bifurcation in phylogeny, still the only known niche subspecialization for S. pneumoniae to date, is critical to understanding the pathogenesis of ocular surface infections, nature of host-pathogen interactions, and developing strategies to curb disease transmission. Keywords: biogeography; community ecology; selection; diversification; drift; dispersion; Streptococcus pneumoniae; epidemic conjunctivitis; nonencapsulated 
520 |a National Institutes of Health (grant nos. EY024285 and AI083214) 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t 10.3390/microorganisms8010046 
773 |t Microorganisms