PeerJ<\/a>.<\/p>\nThey reflect our microbiome – the trillions of different micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies.<\/p>\n
Mobile phone users have been found to touch their devices on average 150 times a day.<\/p>\n
Scientists have found an overlap between the collection of micro-organisms naturally present on our bodies and those on the screens of smartphones.<\/p>\n
They say this could one day be used to track people’s exposure to bacteria.<\/p>\n
In the study, biologists from the University of Oregon sequenced the DNA of microbes found on the index fingers and thumbs of 17 people.<\/p>\n
They also took swabs of the subjects’ smartphones.<\/p>\n
A total of 7,000 different types of bacteria were found in 51 samples.<\/p>\n
Proof-of-concept<\/strong><\/p>\nOn average, 22% of bacterial families overlapped on fingers and phones.<\/p>\n
Some 82% of the most common bacteria present on participants’ fingers were also found on their phones.<\/p>\n
They included three families that are commonly found on the skin or in the mouth –\u00a0Streptococcus<\/em>,\u00a0Staphylococcus<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Corynebacterium<\/em>.<\/p>\nMen and women both shared bacteria with their phones, but the connection was stronger in women.<\/p>\n
Lead researcher Dr James Meadow said while the sample size was small, the findings were “revealing”.<\/p>\n
“This project was a proof-of-concept to see if our favourite and most closely held possessions microbially resemble us,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We are ultimately interested in the possibility of using personal effects as a non-invasive way to monitor our health and our contact with the surrounding environment.”<\/p>\n
The researchers say there is no evidence that mobile phones present any more infection risk than any other possession.<\/p>\n
But they say our phones might one day be used to study whether people have been exposed to certain bacteria, particularly healthcare workers.<\/p>\n
Emotional connection<\/strong><\/p>\nThe study confirms that “we share more than an emotional connection with our phones – they carry our personal microbiome”, Dr Meadow added.<\/p>\n
There is increasing scientific interest in the human microbiome – the population of trillions of micro-organisms that live in our gut, mouth, skin and elsewhere on our bodies.<\/p>\n
Bacteria can be harmful but they can also have beneficial effects, particularly in the gut, by digesting food and making essential nutrients and vitamins.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smartphones reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, say US scientists. More than 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial “fingerprints” end up on their screens, a study suggests. Personal possessions, such as phones, might be useful for tracking the spread of bacteria, they report in\u00a0PeerJ. They reflect our microbiome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-27454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}