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Germs gone wild

The normally harmless behavior of bacteria in the intestinal tract is maintained by community structure and the integrity of host defenses. When either or both of these are compromised, a few disgruntled outcasts can cause a riot, taking down the whole neighborhood (pages 799–806).

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Figure 1: Epithelial integrity and microbial composition affect intestinal homeostasis and the innate immune response.

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Correspondence to Ruslan Medzhitov.

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Hoshi, N., Medzhitov, R. Germs gone wild. Nat Med 18, 654–656 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2767

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