title: The ignored diversity: complex bacterial communities in intensive care units revealed by 16S pyrosequencing.
abstract: Indoor microbial communities play an important role in everyday human health, especially in the intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals. We used amplicon pyrosequencing to study the ICU microbiome and were able to detect diverse sequences, in comparison to the currently used standard cultivation technique that only detected 2.5% of the total bacterial diversity. The phylogenetic spectrum combined species associated with the outside environment, taxa closely related to potential human pathogens, and beneficials as well as included 7 phyla and 76 genera. In addition, Propionibacterium spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Burkholderia spp. were identified as important sources of infections. Despite significantly different bacterial area profiles for floors, medical devices, and workplaces, similarities by network analyses and strains with identical molecular fingerprints were detected. This information will allow for new assessment of public health risks in ICUs, help create new sanitation protocols, and further our understanding of the development of hospital-acquired infections.
authors.affiliation: Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB GmbH), Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oberauner
authors.forename: Christin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zachow
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lackner
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Högenauer
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Smolle
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D019117:Burkholderia / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D010802:Phylogeny; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011424:Propionibacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S