Análise comparativa de metagenomas de transportes públicos

Abstract

Public transportation systems are high-traffic and high-density areas, characteristic elements of the urban environment, and represent complex ecosystems of microorganisms influenced by human movement. The large flow of people favors the spread of pathogenic microorganisms, viruses, and bacteria. The circulation of pathogenic organisms has gained prominence with the recent pandemic and the abundant presence of various types of bacteria responsible for most emerging infectious diseases. The metagenomic methods of analysis are effective because they can study the microorganisms without culturing. Furthermore, next-generation sequencing techniques are an alternative to deal with massive amounts of various organisms. Thereafter, the bioinformatic tools allow for the manipulation of massive data, representing an enormous development of taxonomic and functional annotation studies. In 2015 the international consortium of Metadesign of the Subways and Urban Biomes, MetaSUB, which includes collection, isolation and sequencing of samples from public transportation was formed. Its open database currently contains 5,936 samples derived from over 70 cities in 28 countries. Recently, a research group from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genomics (LBMG) of UFRN ran an study to collect swab samples from the interior of buses in Natal with the purpose of identifying the microbiome of public transportation systems. The genetic material sequences obtained in the study provided a prospect of the organisms present in these environments of the city. The current study proposes an investigation into microorganisms of public transportation systems from nine cities around the world, using data from the database of the MetaSUB consortium, comparing these results with those obtained from Natal's public transport in order to find similarities and discrepancies among the microbiomes studied. As results, about 31% of the organisms are present in all selected cities, reflecting the most common found species overall. Cutibacterium acnes is the most abundant species in most regions. Bacteria are predominant, with the ESKAPE group standing out among the species that pose a threat to public health. The microbiome of Natal fits expectations for the environment analyzed in terms of total reads and organisms found. While presenting an average close to 1.0e+07 reads per sample, the second highest, and a significant presence of Lawsonella clevelandensis and Phreatobacter oligotrophus, species not as common in relation to the selected cities.