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Global airborne bacterial community—interactions with Earth’s microbiomes and anthropogenic activities.

Authors :
Jue Zhao
Ling Jin
Dong Wu
Jia-wen Xie
Jun Li
Xue-wu Fu
Zhi-yuan Cong
Ping-qing Fu
Yang Zhang
Xiao-san Luo
Xin-bin Feng
Gan Zhang
Tiedje, James M.
Xiang-dong Li
Source :
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 10/18/2022, Vol. 119 Issue 42, p1-9. 9p.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Airborne bacteria are an influential component of the Earth’s microbiomes, but their community structure and biogeographic distribution patterns have yet to be understood. We analyzed the bacterial communities of 370 air particulate samples collected from 63 sites around the world and constructed an airborne bacterial reference catalog with more than 27 million nonredundant 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences. We present their biogeographic pattern and decipher the interlacing of the microbiome co-occurrence network with surface environments of the Earth. While the total abundance of global airborne bacteria in the troposphere (1.72 × 1024 cells) is 1 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than that of other habitats, the number of bacterial taxa (i.e., richness) in the atmosphere (4.71 × 108 to 3.08 × 109) is comparable to that in the hydrosphere, and its maximum occurs in midlatitude regions, as is also observed in other ecosystems. The airborne bacterial community harbors a unique set of dominant taxa (24 species); however, its structure appears to be more easily perturbed, due to the more prominent role of stochastic processes in shaping community assembly. This is corroborated by the major contribution of surface microbiomes to airborne bacteria (averaging 46.3%), while atmospheric conditions such as meteorological factors and air quality also play a role. Particularly in urban areas, human impacts weaken the relative importance of plant sources of airborne bacteria and elevate the occurrence of potential pathogens from anthropogenic sources. These findings serve as a key reference for predicting planetary microbiome responses and the health impacts of inhalable microbiomes with future changes in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00278424
Volume :
119
Issue :
42
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
159826551
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204465119