The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland

ABSTRACT Humanity’s transition from the outdoor environment to the built environment (BE) has reduced our exposure to microbial diversity. The relative importance of factors that contribute to the composition of human-dominated BE microbial communities remains largely unknown. In their article in th...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Sean M. Gibbons
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2016
Materias:	built environment hygiene hypothesis indoor microbiome office outdoor Microbiology QR1-502
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/67345db086c94dccb56dcf39272e289e
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:67345db086c94dccb56dcf39272e289e
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:67345db086c94dccb56dcf39272e289e2021-12-02T18:15:43ZThe Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland10.1128/mSystems.00033-162379-5077https://doaj.org/article/67345db086c94dccb56dcf39272e289e2016-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mSystems.00033-16https://doaj.org/toc/2379-5077ABSTRACT Humanity’s transition from the outdoor environment to the built environment (BE) has reduced our exposure to microbial diversity. The relative importance of factors that contribute to the composition of human-dominated BE microbial communities remains largely unknown. In their article in this issue, Chase and colleagues (J. Chase, J. Fouquier, M. Zare, D. L. Sonderegger, R. Knight, S. T. Kelley, J. Siegel, and J. G. Caporaso, mSystems 1(2):e00022-16, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00022-16 ) present an office building study in which they controlled for environmental factors, geography, surface material, sampling location, and human interaction type. They found that surface location and geography were the strongest factors contributing to microbial community structure, while surface material had little effect. Even in the absence of direct human interaction, BE surfaces were composed of 25 to 30% human skin-associated taxa. The authors demonstrate how technical variation across sequencing runs is a major issue, especially in BE work, where the biomass is often low and the potential for PCR contaminants is high. Overall, the authors conclude that BE surfaces are desert-like environments where microbes passively accumulate.Sean M. GibbonsAmerican Society for Microbiologyarticlebuilt environmenthygiene hypothesisindoormicrobiomeofficeoutdoorMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmSystems, Vol 1, Iss 2 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	built environment hygiene hypothesis indoor microbiome office outdoor Microbiology QR1-502
spellingShingle	built environment hygiene hypothesis indoor microbiome office outdoor Microbiology QR1-502 Sean M. Gibbons The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
description	ABSTRACT Humanity’s transition from the outdoor environment to the built environment (BE) has reduced our exposure to microbial diversity. The relative importance of factors that contribute to the composition of human-dominated BE microbial communities remains largely unknown. In their article in this issue, Chase and colleagues (J. Chase, J. Fouquier, M. Zare, D. L. Sonderegger, R. Knight, S. T. Kelley, J. Siegel, and J. G. Caporaso, mSystems 1(2):e00022-16, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00022-16 ) present an office building study in which they controlled for environmental factors, geography, surface material, sampling location, and human interaction type. They found that surface location and geography were the strongest factors contributing to microbial community structure, while surface material had little effect. Even in the absence of direct human interaction, BE surfaces were composed of 25 to 30% human skin-associated taxa. The authors demonstrate how technical variation across sequencing runs is a major issue, especially in BE work, where the biomass is often low and the potential for PCR contaminants is high. Overall, the authors conclude that BE surfaces are desert-like environments where microbes passively accumulate.
format	article
author	Sean M. Gibbons
author_facet	Sean M. Gibbons
author_sort	Sean M. Gibbons
title	The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
title_short	The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
title_full	The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
title_fullStr	The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
title_full_unstemmed	The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland
title_sort	built environment is a microbial wasteland
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/67345db086c94dccb56dcf39272e289e
work_keys_str_mv	AT seanmgibbons thebuiltenvironmentisamicrobialwasteland AT seanmgibbons builtenvironmentisamicrobialwasteland
_version_	1718378335903416320

The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland

Ejemplares similares