Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Microbiome. 2021 Jan 31;9(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s40168-020-00983-x.
While indoor microbiomes impact our health and well-being, much remains unknown about taxonomic and functional transitions that occur in human-derived microbial communities once they are transferred away from human hosts. Toothbrushes are a model to investigate the potential response of oral-derived microbiota to conditions of the built environment. Here, we characterize metagenomes of toothbrushes from 34 subjects to define the toothbrush microbiome and resistome and possible influential factors.
Toothbrush microbiomes often comprised a dominant subset of human oral taxa and less abundant or site-specific environmental strains. Although toothbrushes contained lower taxonomic diversity than oral-associated counterparts (determined by comparison with the Human Microbiome Project), they had relatively broader antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) profiles. Toothbrush resistomes were enriched with a variety of ARGs, notably those conferring multidrug efflux and putative resistance to triclosan, which were primarily attributable to versatile environmental taxa. Toothbrush microbial communities and resistomes correlated with a variety of factors linked to personal health, dental hygiene, and bathroom features.
Selective pressures in the built environment may shape the dynamic mixture of human (primarily oral-associated) and environmental microbiota that encounter each other on toothbrushes. Harboring a microbial diversity and resistome distinct from human-associated counterparts suggests toothbrushes could potentially serve as a reservoir that may enable the transfer of ARGs. Video abstract.
尽管室内微生物组会影响我们的健康和幸福，但对于人类微生物群落一旦离开人类宿主后发生的分类和功能转变，我们仍知之甚少。牙刷是研究口腔衍生微生物群对建筑环境条件潜在反应的模型。在这里，我们对 34 名受试者的牙刷进行宏基因组特征分析，以确定牙刷微生物组和抗性组及可能的影响因素。
牙刷微生物组通常由人类口腔分类群的主要亚群和较少的丰富或特定于部位的环境菌株组成。尽管牙刷的分类多样性低于口腔相关物（通过与人类微生物组计划的比较来确定），但它们具有相对较宽的抗菌药物抗性基因（ARG）谱。牙刷抗性组富含多种 ARG，特别是那些赋予多药外排和对三氯生的潜在抗性的 ARG，这些主要归因于多功能环境分类群。牙刷微生物群落和抗性组与与个人健康、口腔卫生和浴室特征相关的多种因素相关。
建筑环境中的选择压力可能会塑造在牙刷上相互接触的动态混合的人类（主要是口腔相关）和环境微生物群。牙刷具有不同于人类相关物的微生物多样性和抗性组，这表明牙刷可能成为 ARG 转移的潜在储库。视频摘要。
