Affiliation:
1. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2. Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
3. University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA
Abstract
Mass transit environments, specifically, urban subways, are distinct microbial environments with high occupant densities, diversities, and turnovers, and they are thus especially relevant to public health. Despite this, only three culture-independent subway studies have been performed, all since 2013 and all with widely differing designs and conclusions. In this study, we profiled the Boston subway system, which provides 238 million trips per year overseen by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). This yielded the first high-precision microbial survey of a variety of surfaces, ridership environments, and microbiological functions (including tests for potential pathogenicity) in a mass transit environment. Characterizing microbial profiles for multiple transit systems will become increasingly important for biosurveillance of antibiotic resistance genes or pathogens, which can be early indicators for outbreak or sanitation events. Understanding how human contact, materials, and the environment affect microbial profiles may eventually allow us to rationally design public spaces to sustain our health in the presence of microbial reservoirs.
Funder
Alonzo Smythe Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship
HHS | National Institutes of Health
NIH/NHGRI
National Science Foundation
Groupe Danone
Army Research Office/Department of the Army
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Computer Science Applications,Genetics,Molecular Biology,Modelling and Simulation,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Biochemistry,Physiology,Microbiology
Cited by
112 articles.
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