Microbial diversity of extreme habitats in human homes
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Author and article information
Abstract
High throughput sequencing techniques have opened up the world of microbial diversity to scientists, and a flurry of studies in the most remote and extreme habitats on earth have begun to elucidate the key roles of microbes in ecosystems with extreme conditions. These same environmental extremes can also be found closer to humans, even in our homes. Here, we used high throughput sequencing techniques to assess bacterial and archaeal diversity in the extreme environments inside human homes (e.g., dishwashers, hot water heaters, washing machine bleach reservoirs, etc.). We focused on habitats in the home with extreme temperature, pH and chemical environmental conditions. We found a lower diversity of microbes in these extreme home environments compared to less extreme habitats in the home. However, we were nonetheless able to detect sequences from a relatively diverse array of bacteria and archaea. Habitats with extreme temperatures alone appeared to be able to support a greater diversity of microbes than habitats with extreme pH or extreme chemical environments alone. Microbial diversity was lowest when habitats had both extreme temperature and one of these other extremes. In habitats with both extreme temperatures and extreme pH, taxa with known associations with extreme conditions dominated. Our findings highlight the importance of examining interactive effects of multiple environmental extremes on microbial communities. Inasmuch as taxa from extreme environments can be both beneficial and harmful to humans, our findings also suggest future work to understand both the threats and opportunities posed by the life in these habitats.
Cite this as
2016. Microbial diversity of extreme habitats in human homes. PeerJ Preprints 4:e1874v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1874v2note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
Author comment
We responded to reviewers, and this is the latest version of the manuscript.
Sections
Supplemental Information
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors do not have any competing financial or non-financial competing interests to report.
Author Contributions
Amy M. Savage analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables.
Justin Hills conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Katherine Driscoll conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Daniel J Fergus contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Amy M Grunden contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Robert R Dunn conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, reviewed drafts of the paper.
DNA Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding the deposition of DNA sequences:
NCBI SRP071677
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw data has been supplied as a Supplemental Dataset
Funding
This work was funded by A.P. Sloan Microbiology of the Built Environment Program grant awarded to RRD. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
