Intestinal colonization resistance

Dense, complex microbial communities, collectively termed the microbiota, occupy a diverse array of niches along the length of the mammalian intestinal tract. During health and in the absence of antibiotic exposure the microbiota can effectively inhibit colonization and overgrowth by invading microbes such as pathogens. This phenomenon is called 'colonization resistance' and is associated with a stable and diverse microbiota in tandem with a controlled lack of inflammation, and involves specific interactions between the mucosal immune system and the microbiota. Here we overview the microbial ecology of the healthy mammalian intestinal tract and highlight the microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions that…

• WT
  Wellcome Trust
• MR
  Medical Research Council