Scientists have completed the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of bacterial communities inhabiting the human nose and throat, which could provide new insights into why some individuals become colonized with pathogens while others do not. They release their findings today in mBio™ the online open-access journal published by the American Society for Microbiology.
“The nose and throat are important sites of pathogen colonization, yet the microbiota of both are relatively unexplored by culture-independent approaches,” says Katherine Lemon of Children’s Hospital Boston, a lead author on the study that also included researchers from Harvard Medical School, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, San Francisco.
“The nose and throat are important sites of pathogen colonization, yet the microbiota of both are relatively unexplored by culture-independent approaches,” says Katherine Lemon of Children’s Hospital Boston, a lead author on the study that also included researchers from Harvard Medical School, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, San Francisco.
