Study: Cities Have Microbial 'Fingerprints'

摘要

An international team of researchers has discovered that cities each have a unique microbial "fingerprint," also known as their microbiome. Researchers genetically sequenced microbes — viruses, bacteria, and single-cellular organisms — from 60 cities across the globe with samples collected from such sources as hospitals, public transit systems, park soil, and wastewater. Their study, recently published in the journal Cell, is the largest global metagenomic study of city microbiomes ever conducted, said Lynn Schriml, associate professor at the University of Maryland (College Park) School of Medicine and one of the study's authors.