Editorial: XXXIII SIMGBM Congress 2019 - Antimicrobials and Host-Pathogen Interactions

This Research Topic (RT) is intended to provide a collection of selected contributions in the broad area “Antimicrobials and Host-Pathogen Interactions” from the participants of “Microbiology 2019” congress organized by the Italian Society for General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology (SIMGBM, www.simgbm.it), which was held in Florence, Italy, on June 19–22, 2019. The congress was attended by 224 scientists from all over the world, and contributions relevant to this RT were collected from presentations in the following congress sessions: (i) Antibiotic resistome: where do antibiotic resistance genes come from? (ii) New antimicrobial strategies in the post-antibiotic era; (iii) Intercellular communication in host-pathogen interactions; (iv) New approaches to unravel fungal-host interactions; (v) Bacterial cell surface and signaling. The unifying concept of this RT originates from the increasing awareness that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a complex problem which should be addressed by a multifocal approach. Fundamental microbiological investigations in this direction involve understanding of the flow of AMR genes from the environment to human and animal pathogens, the development of new drugs to tackle AMR, and the discovery of new druggable targets to impairmicrobial growth and/or pathogenicity