Viruses collected in a Northwestern University-led study are bacteriophages — a type of virus that infects and replicates inside of bacteria.
The average American spends 93% of their time in built environments, almost 70% of that is in their place of residence. Human health and well-being are intrinsically tied to the quality of our personal environments and the microbiomes that populate them. offline, the built environment microbiome is seeded, formed, and re-shaped by occupant behavior, cleaning, personal hygiene and food choices, as well as geographic location and variability in infrastructure. Huttelmaier et al. focused on the presence of viruses in household biofilms, specifically in showerheads and on toothbrushes.
“The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild,” said Northwestern University's Dr. Erica Hartmann.
“We found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before.”
“It's amazing how much untapped biodiversity is all around us. And you don't even have to go far to find it; it's right under our noses.”
In the study, Dr. Hartmann and her colleagues characterized viruses living on 34 toothbrushes and 92 showerheads.
The samples comprised more than 600 different viruses — and no two samples were alike.
“We saw basically no overlap in virus types between showerheads and toothbrushes,” Dr. Hartmann said.
“We also saw very little overlap between any two samples at all.”
“Each showerhead and each toothbrush is like its own little island.”
“It just underscores the incredible diversity of viruses out there.”
While they found few patterns among all the samples, the researchers did notice more mycobacteriophage than other types of phage.
“We could envision taking these mycobacteriophages and using them as a way to clean pathogens out of your plumbing system,” Dr. Hartmann said.
“We want to look at all the functions these viruses might have and figure out how we can use them.”
The authors caution people not to fret about the invisible wildlife living within our bathrooms.
Instead of grabbing for bleach, people can soak their showerheads in vinegar to remove calcium buildup or simply wash them with plain soap and water.
“And people should regularly replace toothbrush heads,” Dr. Hartmann said.
“I'm also not a fan of antimicrobial toothbrushes, which can lead to antibiotic-resistant bugs.”
“Microbes are everywhere, and the vast majority of them will not make us sick.”
“The more you attack them with disinfectants, the more they are likely to develop resistance or become more difficult to treat. We should all just embrace them.”
The study was published online in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.
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Stefanie Huttelmaier et al. 2024. Phage communities in household-related biofilms correlate with bacterial hosts. Front.Microbiomes 3; doi: 10.3389/frmbi.2024.1396560
Source: www.sci.news
