URBAMIC 16S - Impact of urban morphologies and typologies on the structure of microbiomes of urban deposits

this study aims to explore the impact of urban development on the ecology and evolution of microbiomes, including their potentially pathogenic components for humans. It will focus on the case of a French city (Lyon) representative of European urbanization. It will involve a confrontation of views of the city between experts in the social sciences, engineering, and biology, including the fields of microbiology and bioinformatics. A key hypothesis of the project is that the reorganizations of urban microbiomes should accelerate as the urban becomes generalized as a way of life and as a condition of existence. These reorganizations could represent opportunities for expansion for certain pathogenic species or induce a selection of new genetic configurations. These hypotheses will be tested by comparing (1) the structure of microbiomes (their bacterial component) from urban areas of varying densities, and (2) the genome composition of urban isolates of a model pathogenic species with those of clinical isolates.