What are the impacts of Humans on the microbiome?
According to Peixoto and his team of researchers, “impacts of Humans can disrupt healthy microbiomes, causing dysbiosis characterised by loss of diversity, evenness and homeostasis, and increased prevalence of microbes, hypermutation and antimicrobial resistance.
This can result in:
- Disrupted ecosystems,
- The outbreaks of pests ans pathogens,
- Increased risk of disease.
Microbiome stewardship can exploit the microbiome given that these microbial communities are key members of the holobiont, connect all entities in the ecosystem, respond rapidly to manipulation with immediate effects and are easier to manipulate than macro-organisms.
The use of probiotics or synbiotics is an approach to promote ecosystem functioning and overall human health, avoiding biodiversity loss, pandemics and other impacts while retaining ecosystem services”.
References
Pictures: Freepik
