Microbiology Department, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Future Microbiol. 2011 Jul;6(7):799-817. doi: 10.2217/fmb.11.60.
Despite the broad armory of vaccines, antibiotics and other weapons at our disposal, pathogenic bacteria and fungi continue to present a serious threat to human health. These pathogens have proved very versatile and many are associated with infections of vulnerable individuals, often in hospital settings. Evidence is accumulating that certain infections, for example, of medical devices, the cystic fibrosis lung, the oral cavity, the GI tract and wounds, are in fact polymicrobial, with more than one microbe involved. To understand diseases and formulate intervention strategies, it is necessary to know the extent of contact and communication between microbes in these mixed infections. It is now emerging that the signals that microbes use to coordinate expression of viruence factors within a species may also be perceived by other microbes in the community. This article addresses such interspecies signaling and examines the consequences of such signaling between bacterial and fungal pathogens for expression of virulence traits.
尽管我们拥有广泛的疫苗、抗生素和其他武器，但致病细菌和真菌仍然对人类健康构成严重威胁。这些病原体非常多才多艺，许多与弱势群体的感染有关，通常发生在医院环境中。有证据表明，某些感染实际上是多微生物的，例如医疗器械、囊性纤维化肺、口腔、胃肠道和伤口感染，涉及多种微生物。为了了解疾病并制定干预策略，有必要了解这些混合感染中微生物之间接触和交流的程度。现在出现的情况是，微生物用于协调同种内毒力因子表达的信号，也可能被群落中的其他微生物感知。本文讨论了这种种间信号，并研究了细菌和真菌病原体之间这种信号对毒力特征表达的影响。
