Sören Franzenburg

TL;DR: It is reported that species-specific antimicrobial peptides account for different bacterial communities associated with closely related species of the cnidarian Hydra, showing that animals express a species- specific repertoire of antimicrobialpeptides, which supports and maintains aspecies-specific bacterial community.

TL;DR: The study demonstrates broad cellular effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond classical immune cells and may serve as an entry point to develop biomarkers and targeted treatments of patients with COVID-19.

TL;DR: It is reported that in the basal metazoan Hydra, ectodermal epithelial cells are covered with a multilayered glycocalyx that provides a habitat for a distinctive microbial community that is essential to inhibit pathogen infection.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that recognition of bacteria is an ancestral function of TLR signaling and that this process contributes to both host-mediated recolonization by commensal bacteria as well as to defense against bacterial pathogens.

TL;DR: This process displayed important parallels to the assembly of human fecal communities after birth, suggesting that both, local environmental or host-derived factor(s) modulating the colonization rate, as well as frequency-dependent interactions of individual bacterial community members are important aspects in the emergence of a stable bacterial community at the end of development.