Hassell, James, Ward, MJ, Muloi, D, Bettridge, Judy, Robinson, TP, Ogendo, A, Imboma, T, Kiiru, J, Kariuki, S, Begon, Michael, Kang'ethe, EK, Woolhouse, MEJ and Fevre, Eric (2019) Deterministic Processes Structure Bacterial Genetic Communities across an Urban Landscape. [Data Collection]
Description
Land-use change is predicted to act as a key driver of zoonotic disease emergence through human exposure to novel microbial diversity, but evidence for the effects of environmental change on microbial communities in vertebrate hosts is lacking. We sample wild birds at 99 wildlife-livestock-human interfaces across the city of Nairobi, Kenya, and use whole genome sequencing to characterise populations of bacterial genes known to be carried on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) within avian-borne Escherichia coli (n=241). By modelling the diversity of two sets of bacterial genes (those encoding virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR)) against ecological and anthropogenic forms of urban environmental change, we demonstrate that communities of bacterial genes in avian hosts are shaped by the assemblage of co-existing avian, livestock and human communities, and the habitat within which they exist. In showing that deterministic (i.e. non-random) processes are important in structuring bacterial genetic communities in urban wildlife, we demonstrate that it is possible to link basic epidemiological processes occurring in natural host communities to ecological and anthropogenic drivers across an urban landscape. These findings suggest that it should be possible to forecast the effects of urban land-use change on microbial diversity.
| Keywords: | Kenya, AMR, Nairobi, bacteria, landuse, mobile genetic elements, Urban Zoo, landscape |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Health and Life Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Eric Fevre |
| Date Deposited: | 24 May 2019 08:09 |
| Last Modified: | 28 May 2019 13:10 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/datacat.liverpool.ac.uk/738 |
| URI: | https://datacat.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/738 |
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Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 |
Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 |
