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Summer Conference 2006

This Symposium Issue contains review papers contributed by presenters at the Society for Applied Microbiology’s 75th Anniversary Summer Conference on Living Together – Polymicrobial Communities, which was held at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh from the 3rd to 6th July 2006. The conference was divided into four sessions covering the physiology of polymicrobial communities, ways of influencing polymicrobial communities, the human gut microbiota and bioremediation. The papers in this issue deal with several aspects of the gut microflora and polymicrobial communities, from metabolic interactions and alterations in bacterial populations that occur with ageing, to microbial communities that occur in biofilms on the mucosal lining and on particulate materials in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract. Ways in which these polymicrobial communities can be influenced overlapped in a number of the sessions. One theme discussed in several articles is the use of therapeutic strategies involving the use of prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics to modify the structure and composition of gastrointestinal microbiotas, such as in the ageing gut, mucosal biofilm communities in the upper digestive tract and large bowel, as well as in oral bacterial populations. One paper reviews the important issue of how antimicrobial drug residues can affect the complexity of the human intestinal microflora, and the requirement for test systems to measure acceptable daily intakes. Two articles are included from the final bioremediation session, covering microbial availability of organic chemicals in soils, and the ways in which polymicrobial communities can bioremediate complex organic mixtures. Although not all of the presentations from the various sessions have been included in this collection, the articles provide a good indication of the general flavour of the meeting, and the current state of research in the various subject areas. The Editors would like to thank the authors for their timeliness and help in making this issue possible. Dr Sandra Macfarlane Guest Editor Dundee University Gut Group, Dundee UK Journal of Applied Microbiology ISSN 1364-5072