Commensals of the nasal passage provide a microbial barrier to pathogen colonization. These microbes drive host equilibrium and allostatic response to maintain their host niche. However, pathogens must overwrite this balance to alter the host response – the cellular processes during this process are still require characterization.
It is known the commensal Corynebacterium accolens (Ca) is a constituent of the human nasal passage with known antimicrobal properties to Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus). Understanding how the host response is shaped by Ca and how the host response senses the microbial warfare between Ca and pneumococcus is fundamental to the early stages of respiratory disease progression as pneumococcus transmigrates past the nasal passage to the lungs.
