Editorial: Recent Advances in Symbiosis Research: Integrative Approaches

Symbiosis research is being transformed by new model systems and technologies that bring forth unexpected discoveries. Technological advances such as those stemming from Next Generation Sequencing enable detailed insights into the molecular bases of symbiotic relationships, and have revolutionized the study of complex microbial communities. As new data gathers, the need grows for a conceptual framework that helps organize and make sense of the information. Here, we present some ground-breaking works pushing the boundaries of our understanding of symbiosis in a variety of systems, as well as some state-of-the-art attempts at putting forward organizing principles for the whole of symbiology.