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Symbionts and Pathogens: What is the Difference?

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Between Pathogenicity and Commensalism

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 358))

Abstract

The ecological relationships that organisms establish with others can be considered as broad and diverse as the forms of life that inhabit and interact in our planet. Those interactions can be considered as a continuum spectrum, ranging from beneficial to detrimental outcomes. However, this picture has revealed as more complex and dynamic than previously thought, involving not only factors that affect the two or more members that interact, but also external forces, with chance playing a crucial role in this interplay. Thus, defining a particular symbiont as mutualist or pathogen in an exclusive way, based on simple rules of classification is increasingly challenging if not unfeasible, since new methodologies are providing more evidences that depict exceptions, reversions and transitions within either side of this continuum, especially evident at early stages of symbiotic associations. This imposes a wider and more dynamic view of a complex landscape of interactions.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by grants BFU2009-12895-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) to A. Latorre, and SAF2009-13302-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) and PROMETEO/2009/092 (Conselleria d’Educació, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) to A. Moya

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Genómica y Salud, Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CSISP), Avenida de Cataluña 21, 46020, Valencia, Spain

    Vicente Pérez-Brocal

  2. CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Amparo Latorre

  3. Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Apartado Postal 22085, 46071, Valencia, Spain

    Andrés Moya

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  1. Vicente Pérez-Brocal
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Correspondence to Vicente Pérez-Brocal .

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  1. , Institut für Hygiene, Universitätsklinikum Münster, Robert-Koch-Str. 41, Münster, 48149, Germany

    Ulrich Dobrindt

  2. , Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leop, Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 37, Halle, 06108, Germany

    Jörg H. Hacker

  3. , Section of Microbiology, Immunology and, Lund University, Sölvegatan 23, Lund, 22362, Sweden

    Catharina Svanborg

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Pérez-Brocal, V., Latorre, A., Moya, A. (2011). Symbionts and Pathogens: What is the Difference?. In: Dobrindt, U., Hacker, J., Svanborg, C. (eds) Between Pathogenicity and Commensalism. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 358. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/82_2011_190

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