Co-evolved Partners of Immunity: A Trait-Based Map of Human Keystone Organisms.

ABSTRACT: Persistent human-adapted microbes can act as immunological "keystones," organizing host defense across tissues and shaping vulnerability under immune perturbation. More generally, tissue immunity is calibrated by persistent niche-resident organisms that tune compartment-specific thresholds of cytotoxicity and peripheral tolerance; keystone organisms represent the apex subset with multi-niche scope. Here we operationalize keystone organisms as pathogens whose containment requires coordinated engagement of multiple immune arms and whose residence is structured across anatomical niches. Using 18 curated immunological and evolutionary traits across 43 organisms, unsupervised analyses resolved four reproducible archetypes and identified a compact keystone set dominated by persistent herpesvirus

SUBMITTER: Asiaee A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12773006 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature