{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T22:17:27Z","timestamp":1791584247443,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,22]],"date-time":"2025-04-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745280000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>The role of the respiratory microbiome in lung diseases is increasingly recognized, with the potential migration of respiratory pathogens being a significant clinical consideration. Despite its importance, evidence elucidating this phenomenon remains scarce.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This prospective study collected clinical samples from patients with suspected lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), including oropharyngeal swabs (OPS), sputum, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) was employed to analyze respiratory microbial diversity, complemented by Bayesian source tracking and sequence alignment analyses to explore pathogen migration patterns.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>A cohort of 68 patients was enrolled, with 56 diagnosed with LRTI and 12 with non-infectious respiratory conditions. A statistically significant disparity in respiratory microbiome diversity was observed between infected and non-infected groups (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). Intriguingly, no significant variations in microbial community structure, including alpha and beta diversity, were detected across different respiratory tract sites within individuals. The Bayesian source tracking analysis revealed a pronounced migration pattern among pathogens compared to the overall microbial community, with migration ratios of 51.54% and 1.92%, respectively (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). Sequence similarity analysis further corroborated these findings, highlighting a notable homology among specific migrating pathogens.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study represents a pioneering effort in deducing pathogen migration patterns through microbial source tracking analysis. The findings provide novel insights that could significantly advance clinical diagnostics and therapeutic strategies for respiratory infections.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2025.1542562","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,22]],"date-time":"2025-04-22T05:25:34Z","timestamp":1745299534000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Investigation of dynamic microbial migration patterns in the respiratory tract"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Ping","family":"Fang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanhua","family":"Wen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenjing","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruobing","family":"Liang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ping","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chunya","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Na","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kaikai","family":"Huo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kaikai","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Bai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuwan","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Long","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuanlin","family":"Guan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuanying","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.65088","article-title":"Integrating taxonomic, functional, and strain-level profiling of diverse microbial communities with bioBakery","volume":"10","author":"Beghini","year":"2021","journal-title":"Elife"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2114","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btu170","article-title":"Trimmomatic: a flexible trimmer for Illumina sequence data","volume":"30","author":"Bolger","year":"2014","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"341","DOI":"10.1038\/s41576-019-0113-7","article-title":"Clinical metagenomics","volume":"20","author":"Chiu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. 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