Jeri’s review published in EcoSal
Writing a review article is a time-intensive, thoughtful endeavor—truly a labor of love. Drs. Jeri Barak and Nicola Holden dedicated the better part of a year to shaping their latest contribution to the field: Microbe-plant interactions of Escherichia coli and Salmonella.
Longtime peers with a mutual respect for each other’s work, Jeri and Nic had been seeking the right opportunity to collaborate. When the invitation to write this review arrived, they knew it was their moment to challenge entrenched narratives and offer a fresh perspective.
Rather than reinforcing outdated frameworks that describe plants merely as secondary hosts of foodborne pathogens, this review repositions Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and Salmonella enterica (SE) as mesophilic organisms with remarkable adaptive plasticity. It highlights their capacity to survive, persist, and even thrive in plant-associated environments—changing the conversation around microbial ecology and plant-microbe interactions.
A special thanks to Eliza Wolfson for producing Fig. 1 of the review.
