拉丁美洲地铁“最高抗菌素抗性”

对世界58个城市的城市运输系统和地铁进行的测试发现，拉丁美洲是抗菌耐药基因（RAM）的最高流行率的地区。

An international team of 600 researchers took 3,741 samples from the railings, ticket machines and walls of underground stations, to create an “atlas” of urban microorganism communities.

他们使用样品在那些城市的地方鉴定细菌，病毒和真菌（统称为微生物群），并分析遗传特征和抗生素耐药性的变化。

“This is an unprecedented study, which was possible thanks to technological advances that allow gene sequencing and computational analysis from a huge amount of data,”

布宜诺斯艾利斯Leloir Institute Foundation科学家Cristina Marino Buslje

Scientists identified 4,424 known species, of which 1,145 were found in more than 70 per cent of the samples. Sixty-one were found in more than 95 per cent of samples and are not part of the normal human microbiota from skin and airways, nor of the soil.

该研究由非洲，美国，亚洲，欧洲和大洋洲的科学家联盟发表在BioRxiv， 一个open-access preprint repository that allows scientists to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community.

Eduardo Castro-Nallar, co-author of the paper and a researcher at Andrés Bello University’s Centre for Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, in Santiago, Chile, said: “This led us to think that cities are an ecosystem by themselves, with a stable community of microorganisms.”.

此外，研究发现，无法鉴定出超过50％的收集的遗传样本，因此存在科学不知道或定义的微生物。

In Latin America, the scientists took samples from subways and urban transport systems of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, and Santiago. The prevalence of RAM genes found there was between 10 and 20 times higher than cities in other regions. Rio de Janeiro and Bogota, for example, showed ten times more RAM genes than Paris, Baltimore or Singapore.

该研究还表明，RAM的性质和基因的分布因城市而异。卡斯特罗·纳拉（Castro-Nallar）说：“尽管许多城市都存在许多微生物，但有一种微生物签名来识别每个城市：一个人可以采用样本，分析并预测其起源。”生物学研究所。

他说：“有些样本只有几个RAM基因，但其他样本有很多，这不仅在我们了解城市发展，而且在城市规划方面都有后果。”

这位科学家说，这表明需要更好地管理拉丁美洲的抗生素，并补充说：“我们论文的结果表明，RAM基因的流行率很高，只超过了尼日利亚的Offa。”

Cristina Marino Buslje, a scientist at the Leloir Institute Foundation’s Structural Bioinformatics Unit, in Buenos Aires, who did not participate in the study, said: “This is an unprecedented study, which was possible thanks to technological advances that allow gene sequencing and computational analysis from a huge amount of data.

“I hope that the data generated in this global study will be taken into account by government officials for decision-making in health policy. It could also help health professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of infections.”

布宜诺斯艾利斯省国家西北大学的弗吉尼亚·帕斯奎内利（Virginia Pasquinelli）说：“这项工作不仅为城市微生物组分析提供了新的信息，而且还提供了免费的工具。最终目标是构建一个可以访问整个科学界的数据库，以允许在不同环境中复制和验证信息，从而为公共卫生带来利益。beplay足球体育的微博

“Nowadays, we know that microbiome modulates our immune system response; even how we respond to tumors is regulated by the diversity of our normal flora. To think that there is interaction with another urban microbiome is another good point to have in mind in further investigations.”

This article was produced by SciDev.Net’s Latin America and Caribbean desk and edited for clarity and brevity.