Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionBioscience Program
Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC)
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1059/01/01URF/1/1976/03/01
Date
2018-06-29Online Publication Date
2018-06-29Print Publication Date
2018-08-01Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/628391
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Dust and sandstorm events inject substantial quantities of foreign microorganisms into global ecosystems, with the ability to impact distant environments. The majority of these microorganisms originate from deserts and drylands where the soil is laden with highly stress-resistant microbes capable of thriving under extreme environmental conditions, and a substantial portion of them survive long journeys through the atmosphere. This large-scale transmission of highly resilient alien microbial contaminants raises concerns with regards to the invasion of sensitive and/or pristine sink environments, and to human health - concerns exacerbated by increases in the rate of desertification. Further increases in the transport of dust-associated microbiota could extend the spread of foreign microbes to new ecosystems, increase their load in present sink environments, disrupt ecosystem balance, and potentially introduce new pathogens. Our present understanding of these microorganisms, their phylogenic affiliations and functional significance, is insufficient to determine their impact. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of available data regarding dust and sandstorm microbiota and their potential ramifications on human and ecosystem health. We conclude by discussing current gaps in dust and sandstorm microbiota research, and the need for collaborative studies involving high-resolution meta-omic approaches in conjunction with extensive ecological time-series studies to advance the field towards an improved and sufficient understanding of these invisible atmospheric travelers and their global ramifications.Citation
Behzad H, Mineta K, Gojobori T (2018) Global Ramifications of Dust and Sandstorm Microbiota. Genome Biology and Evolution 10: 1970–1987. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy134.Sponsors
The research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), under award numbers BAS/1/1059/01/01 and URF/1/1976/03/01. We thank Martin Ibarra for his assistance with literature search. Figure. 1 was produced by Ivan Gromicho, scientific illustrator at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)Journal
Genome Biology and Evolutionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/gbe/evy134
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com