Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Apr 7.
Published in final edited form as: Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2020 Sep 24;176:1–42. doi: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2020.08.013

Figure 4. Adapted island theory of healthy lung microbiome assembly.

Figure 4.

According to this model proposed by Dickson et al., the upper respiratory tract (URT), and particularly the oral cavity, constitute a source community from which microbes disperse to the lower respiratory tract (LRT). Microbes present in each local habitat of the LRT are therefore a subset of the microbes present in the URT source community. Sites deeper within the LRT face greater dispersal limitation, as they are physically farther from the source community, and therefore diversity decreases with distance from the URT.