Swabbing 96 sites: IIT Madras maps Chennai Metro's urban microbiome
ravi_iitm · x · 2026-11-13
A team at IIT Madras, led by Prof. Karthik Raman, mapped microbial communities across Chennai Metro in a study covered by The Hindu. Researchers swabbed 96 samples from 12 stations and 12 trains across four high-touch surface types (handrails, ticketing kiosks, seats, train handles) plus 47 environmental controls, using whole-genome metagenomic sequencing.
They found a distinct 'transit biome' for Chennai shaped by coastal climate, humidity, urban density and nearby agriculture; nearly half the DNA couldn't be matched to known organisms. The study detected 206 AMR gene families across 25 antibiotic classes, but with widespread yet generally low antibiotic resistance — no immediate cause for concern. The work joins global efforts like the MetaSUB consortium to build forensic maps of urban microbiomes.
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