The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland.

摘要: ABSTRACT Humanity’s transition from the outdoor environment to built (BE) has reduced our exposure microbial diversity. The relative importance of factors that contribute composition human-dominated BE 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, Siegel, G. Caporaso, mSystems 1(2):e00022-16, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00022-16 ) present an office building study which they controlled for environmental factors, geography, surface material, sampling location, human interaction type. They found location geography were strongest contributing community structure, while material had little effect. Even absence direct interaction, surfaces composed 25 30% skin-associated taxa. authors demonstrate how technical variation across sequencing runs is a major especially work, where biomass often low potential PCR contaminants high. Overall, conclude are desert-like environments microbes passively accumulate.