Topic
Systems
Framing Question
How do microorganisms, cellular and viral, interact with both human and non-human hosts in beneficial, neutral, or detrimental ways?
Learning Objectives
- State two ways that the normal microbiota are beneficial to a human host.
- Name two sites on the human body colonized by the normal microbiota, and give an example of the type of organisms found at those sites.
- Describe at least two innate physical defenses in the human body that are used to fend off an infection.
- Given a particular pathogen (symbiont), describe how it creates cell damage (benefits) in its host.
- Compare and contrast commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic relationships.
- Explain what adaptations are necessary for a bacterium to survive in the respiratory tract, skin, intestinal tract, or urinary tract.
- Describe how the human microbiome influences the host human organism.
- Describe a situation that could lead to the normal microbiota causing disease.
- Given a human defense, describe a mechanism that would allow a bacterial pathogen to evade it.
Related Articles
- Assessing in vivo Antimicrobial Activity Through the Analysis of Galleria mellonella Kaplan-Meier Plots
- The impact of diet and antibiotics on the gut microbiome
- Understanding Host-Pathogen Interactions With the Use of Galleria mellonella
- You and Your Oral Microflora: Introducing non-biology majors to their “forgotten organ”
