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Published online 13 May 2009 | Nature 459, 159-161 (2009) | doi:10.1038/459159a
Corrected online: 20 May 2009

News Feature

Microbiology: Tinker, bacteria, eukaryote, spy

Bacteria and their hosts may reside in different kingdoms, but that doesn't stop them from intercepting each other's communications. Asher Mullard reports.

Asher Mullard

When Mark Lyte looked up from the podium at the 1992 American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, he saw two faces — and nearly 400 empty seats. Lyte, a microbiologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, ploughed on regardless.

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  • Function-specific homeostasis (FSH) is a negative-feedback response of a biosystem to maintain the function-specific conditions inside the biosystem so that the function is perfectly performed. There is an immunity-specific homeostasis (ISH) so that a host in ISH might have something that can keep intranasal pathogens in check. About 25% of people have Staphylococcus aureus residing permanently in their nose and an estimated 1% live healthily with MRSA. APOB at homeostatic levels in blood is an essential innate defense effector against invasive S. aureus infection. There might be a similar mechanism that a host in ISH might resist influenza virus until the person is far from ISH. At this point, intranasal low intensity laser therapy (ILILT) might rehabilitate the host so that there might be the prophylaxis of ILILT against flu. It has been discussed in the following website: http://network.nature.com/groups/homeostasis/forum/topics/4544

    • 14 May, 2009
    • Posted by: Timon Cheng-Yi Liu