Abstract
BackgroundWhile indoor microbiomes impact our health and well-being, much remains unknown about taxonomic and functional transitions that occur in human-derived microbial communities once they are transferred away from human hosts. Toothbrushes are a model to investigate the potential response of oral-derived microbiota to conditions of the built environment. Here, we characterize metagenomes of toothbrushes from 34 subjects to define the toothbrush microbiome and resistome and possible influential factors.ResultsToothbrush microbiomes often comprised a dominant subset of human oral taxa and less abundant or site-specific environmental strains. Although toothbrushes contained lower taxonomic diversity than oral-associated counterparts (determined by comparison with the Human Microbiome Project), they had relatively broader antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) profiles. Toothbrush resistomes were enriched with a variety of ARGs, notably those conferring multidrug efflux and putative resistance to triclosan, which were primarily attributable to versatile environmental taxa. Toothbrush microbial communities and resistomes correlated with a variety of factors linked to personal health, dental hygiene, and bathroom features.ConclusionsSelective pressures in the built environment may shape the dynamic mixture of human (primarily oral-associated) and environmental microbiota that encounter each other on toothbrushes. Harboring a microbial diversity and resistome distinct from human-associated counterparts suggests toothbrushes could potentially serve as a reservoir that may enable the transfer of ARGs.4LqYjTwSLFZjCpHDUfn4noVideo abstract
Highlights
While indoor microbiomes impact our health and well-being, much remains unknown about taxonomic and functional transitions that occur in human-derived microbial communities once they are transferred away from human hosts
Since the humanassociated microbiota in such indoor microbiome studies disproportionately involves the fraction derived from skin, the question of what happens to those from other body sites when they find themselves in a hostile non-host environment is largely unexplored
Toothbrush microbiomes contained a mix of humanassociated taxa, primarily from oral body sites (Fig. 1a)
Summary
While indoor microbiomes impact our health and well-being, much remains unknown about taxonomic and functional transitions that occur in human-derived microbial communities once they are transferred away from human hosts. Used toothbrushes are known to harbor a combination of putatively human-derived and environmental microorganisms, such as members of Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Poryphromonas, Parvimonas, Lactobacillus, Klebsiella, Fusobacterium, Escherichia, and Enterococcus [9,10,11,12]. Since these assessments were largely limited to culture-dependent monitoring for contamination, much remains unknown about microbial community structure and function on toothbrushes
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