In A New Study of Bacteria Found in Offices, Culprits are the Chair, the Phone and the Guys

from scientificamerican.com

What is the dirtiest thing on your desk? If you work in a typical office, it’s not actually your computer mouse or your keyboard or even your desk. According to a new study, published online May 30 in PLoS ONE, it’s your phone—but your chair’s not far behind.

Before you drop that receiver or leap out of your seat, hold that thought for just a second. “Dirty” is a messy word. It doesn’t necessarily mean that will make you sick. For this study, researchers measured the abundance of bacteria. Plenty of species are dangerous—take the drug-resistant bug MRSA for example, which can be found in healthcare and community settings. But most are relatively neutral, and many are important members of our own internal and external ecosystems, our microbiomes, keeping our metabolic and immune functions running well.

We, however, are just starting to piece together this invisible landscape. “Humans are spending an increasing amount of time indoors, yet we know little about the diversity of bacteria and viruses where we live, work and play,” Scott Kelley, of San Diego State University’s biology department and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement.

For the study, Kelley and his colleagues used genetic sequencing to sample bacteria from five surfaces in 30 offices in three large cities: New York City, San Francisco and Tucson.

They found bacteria from 549 different genera, most of which hailed from the skin, mouth and nose, but some of which also generally live in the digestive tract. The most common major groups included Proteobacteria (which includes the bacteria that cause cholera as well as salmonella and E. coli poisoning), Firmicutes (which includes staph and listeria bugs) and Actinobacteria (which includes some bacteria that have been the source of antibiotics). With deep genetic sequencing, the group also managed to detect some rare specimens, such as those that are more commonly found in hot springs, which could eventually help researchers study how these hardy bacteria spread across the globe.

See why guys might have more microbial matter and which city had the dirtiest office, New York, San Francisco or Tucson...