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Department of Quantitative Biomedicine

The Kümmerli group shows how biotic and abiotic factors affect competitive dynamics between co-infecting human pathogens

Strain background, species frequency and environmental conditions are important in determining population dynamics and species co-existence between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus

Figure 3: The competitive ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa depends on the Staphylococcus aureus strain genetic background. © 2020 The Authors

Although bacterial communities in infections are typically diverse, little is known about how ecology affects inter-pathogen competition. Here, ecological theory was applied to understand how biotic and abiotic factors affect interaction patterns between two human pathogens that often co-occur in polymicrobial infections: Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphyloccocus aureus. This study revealed that ecological details such as strain background, species frequency and environmental conditions play important roles in the competitive dynamics between these co-infecting pathogens, suggesting that to truly understand polymicrobial infections, an integrative approach combining molecular and ecological aspects is essential.

See Niggli & Kümmerli, Applied & Environmental Microbiology