Background The human gut microbiota has been implicated in most aspects of health and
disease; however, most of the bacteria in this community are considered unculturable, so …

The upper respiratory tract (URT) is a crucial site for host defense, as it is home to bacterial
communities that both modulate host immune defense and serve as a reservoir of potential …

Shifts in the maternal gut microbiome have been implicated in metabolic adaptations to
pregnancy. We investigated how pregnancy and diet interact to influence the composition of the …

Rationale: The microbial communities inhabiting the upper respiratory tract protect from
respiratory infection. The maturity of the immune system is a major influence on the composition …

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is one of the most important processes in prokaryote evolution.
The sharing of DNA can spread neutral or beneficial genes, as well as genetic parasites …

Background Advances in next-generation sequencing technologies have allowed for
detailed, molecular-based studies of microbial communities such as the human gut, soil, and …

Amplicon sequencing (for example, of the 16S rRNA gene) identifies the presence and
relative abundance of microbial community members. However, metagenomic sequencing is …

Cystic fibrosis (CF) manifests in the lungs resulting in chronic microbial infection. Most
morbidity and mortality in CF is due to cycles of pulmonary exacerbations—episodes of acute …

A recent workshop titled “Developing Models to Study Polymicrobial Infections,” sponsored
by the Dartmouth Cystic Fibrosis Center (DartCF), explored the development of new models …

A pangenome is the complete set of genes (core and accessory) present in a phylogenetic
clade. We hypothesize that a pangenome’s accessory gene content is structured and …