Articles of Significant Interest in This Issue

摘要

Despite the availability of pneumococcal vaccines, Streptococcus pneumoniae inflicts a severe socioeconomic burden on people worldwide. This accentuates the need to develop novel prophylactic strategies. Here Shekhar et al. (e02235-18) took advantage of Streptococcus mitis, a commensal human colonizer that shares immunogenic characteristics with S. pneumoniae, to induce protection against pneumococcal infection. Intranasal immunization of mice with S. mitis or its genetically engineered mutant expressing the pneumococcal capsule conferred protection against S. pneumoniae lung infection, which may have important implications for developing commensal-based vaccines against various pathogens, including S. pneumoniae.A lack of information on the gut microbiota of neonatal calves prevents the use of microbial intervention strategies to improve calf gut health. Malmuthuge et al. (e02534-18) demonstrated an individualized ileum microbiome for neonatal dairy calves and found that calves could be grouped based on their microbiome composition and function. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis showed that these grouped calves exhibit varied immune functions. These findings may provide a framework for further analysis of interactions between the gut microbiota and the immune system and health of neonatal calves.