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The keystone-pathogen hypothesis

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TLDR
Critical assessment of the available literature that supports the keystone-pathogen hypothesis holds that certain low-abundance microbial pathogens can orchestrate inflammatory disease by remodelling a normally benign microbiota into a dysbiotic one.
Abstract
Recent studies have highlighted the importance of the human microbiome in health and disease. However, for the most part the mechanisms by which the microbiome mediates disease, or protection from it, remain poorly understood. The keystone-pathogen hypothesis holds that certain low-abundance microbial pathogens can orchestrate inflammatory disease by remodelling a normally benign microbiota into a dysbiotic one. In this Opinion article, we critically assess the available literature that supports this hypothesis, which may provide a novel conceptual basis for the development of targeted diagnostics and treatments for complex dysbiotic diseases.

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Role of the gut microbiota in immunity and inflammatory disease

TL;DR: Understanding the interaction of the microbiota with pathogens and the host might provide new insights into the pathogenesis of disease, as well as novel avenues for preventing and treating intestinal and systemic disorders.
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Periodontitis: from microbial immune subversion to systemic inflammation

TL;DR: The mechanisms of microbial immune subversion that tip the balance from homeostasis to disease in oral or extra-oral sites are discussed.
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The gut microbiota and host health: a new clinical frontier

TL;DR: The potential of manipulating the gut microbiota in these disorders is assessed, with an examination of the latest and most relevant evidence relating to antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, polyphenols and faecal microbiota transplantation.
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The microbiome and cancer

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss links between the bacterial microbiota and cancer, with a particular focus on immune responses, dysbiosis, genotoxicity, metabolism and strategies to target the microbiome for cancer prevention.
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Keystone taxa as drivers of microbiome structure and functioning

TL;DR: A definition of keystone taxa in microbial ecology is proposed and over 200 microbial keystoneTaxa that have been identified in soil, plant and marine ecosystems, as well as in the human microbiome are summarized.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity

TL;DR: It is suggested that local animal species diversity is related to the number of predators in the system and their efficiency in preventing single species from monopolizing some important, limiting, requisite in the marine rocky intertidal.
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Host-Bacterial Mutualism in the Human Intestine

TL;DR: New studies are revealing how the gut microbiota has coevolved with us and how it manipulates and complements the authors' biology in ways that are mutually beneficial.
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Microbial complexes in subgingival plaque

TL;DR: The purpose of the present investigation was to attempt to define communities using data from large numbers of plaque samples and different clustering and ordination techniques, which related strikingly to clinical measures of periodontal disease particularly pocket depth and bleeding on probing.
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