Microbes and One Health across Humans, Animals, and the Environment
Open Access DepositedHuman health - I use metagenomics to compare gut microbiome diversity and the differential abundance of microbial genes in a mouse model of human allergies compared to wild type healthy mice. Animal - I use metagenomics again to determine the effects of wild versus ex-situ diet on the diversity of gut microbial communities in endangered mountain tapirs. Environment - I use metatranscriptomics to detect agriculturally and ecologically important plant pathogenic microbes within the microbiomes of insects collected at the US border.
Health connects all living things across all environments on Earth. As a result, shared health frameworks, such as One Health, were developed to integrate insights gained from human, animal, and environmental health research towards the goal of ensuring positive health outcomes across all living things. Human activities and policy choices affect plants, animals, and the global environment, which in turn affect human health. The changing environment (including climate change and expansion of anthropogenic land use which fragments natural habitats) is placing increasing pressure on all living organisms, leading to a decrease in biodiversity [1,2] and increases in disease spill-over from animals to humans as wild animals integrate into human developed landscapes [3–5]. The changing environment also impacts humans directly. Air pollution increases the prevalence of respiratory disease [6] and overuse of antibiotics results in increases in multidrug resistant microbes, even in natural environments, which make infections more difficult to treat [7,8]. The One Health perspective understands that human, animal, and environmental health are inseparable [9,10], and the microbiome, home to both commensals and pathogens, is central to all 3 areas. Microbial influence on health is not fully understood. It is estimated that the majority of microbes on Earth remain undiscovered [11,12]. In addition, microbial communities are dynamic (responding to environmental changes [13] as well as host diet and genetics [14–16]), making it difficult to identify associations between microbial presence and health impacts, and even more difficult to determine the mechanisms. Next generation sequencing and -omics methodologies are the tools we use to investigate the associations and interactions between microbes and their hosts and environments. Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics are broadly applicable omics methods that capture total DNA and RNA, respectively, to identify microbial community members, determine their functions within the microbiome, and detect shifts in microbiome diversity that could collectively be an indicator of shifting host health status. In this dissertation, I utilize metagenomic and metatranscriptomic methodologies in the three One Health areas
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