International Study Reveals Cities Have Exclusive Microbiome Fingerprints

Cities around the world have unique microbiome and further investigation of these urban microflora could aid in the development of promising therapeutic products.

Not only flora and fauna but also microbiomes add up to the uniqueness of cities. Study finds that cities around the world contain microbes, exclusive to each of them. Now, It's time to give credits to those invincible tiny creatures.

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) reported that each city has its own unique microbiome that includes viruses and bacteria. This research work is an international project which could be the largest-ever global metagenomic study of urban microbiomes. The findings of this research are published in the journal Cell .

Mode of Delivery at Birth Linked to Child�s Skin Microbiome
Mode of delivery at birth strongly influences the skin microbiome of children, which resemble that of their mothers. In particular, cesarean or vaginal deliveries strongly impact the facial bacterial population.

‘A core set of 31 microbial species were found in 97 percent of samples across the sampled urban areas. These microbes could be of therapeutic importance that can help produce promising drugs.’

Christopher Mason, Ph.D., the senior author of this study and a professor at Weill Cornell Medicine and the director of the World Quant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction said, "Every city has its own 'molecular echo' of the microbes that define it.”

Microbiome profiles of cities

The analyses in the research include 4,728 samples from cities on six continents taken over the course of three years spanning both the air and surfaces. In addition to this, samples from public transit systems and hospitals in 60 cities around the world were also collected and sequenced.

Tongue Microbiome Could Help Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer
Tongue coat microbiome is altered in pancreatic cancer patients. The change in the degree of colonization of bacteria could help in developing rapid diagnostic methods for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

The outcomes revealed a core set of 31 species that were found in 97 percent of samples across the sampled urban areas. 4,246 known species of microbes were detected whereas any subsequent sampling will still likely showcase species that have never been seen before.

"Baltimore's distinct microbial signature reveals a unique, fascinating, and diverse world, providing insights into geographical variation and previously unknown microbial genomes," said co-author of the study Lynn Schriml, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), at UMSOM. She led the study sampling efforts for Baltimore's transit systems.

Gut Microbes in a Baby�s Digestive Tract can Prevent Asthma
Babies born to mothers with asthma are at an increased risk of developing asthma, especially baby boys are more at risk than girls.

This extensive research features a comprehensive analysis for all the microbial species identified and also for two newly identified single-cell organisms not found in reference databases.

"If you gave me your shoe, I could tell you with about 90 percent accuracy the city in the world from which you came," surprises study senior author Christopher Mason.

Gut Microbes and Flavonoids Can Help Fight Influenza
Gut microbes prevent severe flu infections by breaking down naturally occurring compounds like flavonoids found in foods such as black tea, red wine and blueberries.

COVID-19 could have changed the scene

This study was performed before COVID-19 started to disseminate in every nook and corner. Since the start of 2020, lockdowns and curfews pushed the world to adapt to "new normal". So, the researchers are now examining the impact of SARS-CoV-2 spread on the microbiome of each city. This international consortium of researchers launched the MetaCOV project in 2020 to observe the changes in urban microbiomes and isolate the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in urban environments like ATM machines, wastewater, hospitals, transit systems.

As the study represents a systematic worldwide catalog of the urban microbial ecosystem for the first time, discoveries related to microbial diversity in urban environments could be flourished. Those studies can further aid in producing potential pharmaceuticals from the newly identified microflora from urban areas.

Source-Medindia