Australian cities to discover how much bacteria exists in public transport system

A team of Melbourne scientists has begun a study to discover how much bacteria is living within the city's public transport system.

Melbourne, along with Sydney, are two of 58 cities participating in an international study based out of New York, which is aimed at developing an outline of the germs and bacteria found in major cities' public transport systems. In Melbourne, the team will run tests inside and outside trains, trams and buses.

In the study already completed in New York's subway system, scientists discovered that of the human bacterial DNA identified, 32 percent was associated with the stomach and intestine area and 29 percent was connected to the skin. Another 20 percent of the bacteria was identified from the genital area and almost 10 percent was associated with the simple act of breathing.

The Melbourne team, led by Monash University science student Andrew Gray, told Fairfax Media on Wednesday that each city is taking a "selfie of its microbiome", also known as its bacterium system.

To create a snapshot of Melbourne's bacterium landscape, scientists and volunteers ran tests across seven of Melbourne's train stations, including key tourist spot, Flinders Street station, and the CBD's Southern Cross and Melbourne Central stations in June.

The scientists swabbed the infrastructure around key transport hubs, including benches, vending machines, handrails, escalators and bike racks near the stations. The swabs were then placed in a tube containing a mixture designed to keep the bacteria alive but inactive.

"We really know very little about the bacteria that surround us," Gray told Fairfax on Wednesday.

The international experiment, which is partly being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the U.S., will hopefully give researchers an understanding into any bacterial trends that develop in the major cities, as they aim to combat infectious disease.

"Bacteria are really good at evolving; they evolve really fast," Gray said. "So this will give us an insight into how they evolve and hopefully enable us to stay one step ahead."

Of the data collected in New York, 48 percent did not match any known living organism, showing how ambiguous and unknown the bacterium can be.

However, it wasn't all bad news, as computational geneticist and lead investigator on the international project Christopher Mason said most of the bacteria detected were harmless.

The results of the Melbourne samples will be available within six months, as the tubes are currently being stored in a community science laboratory in Melbourne.

The samples will then be sent to a Shanghai University in China, where the bacteria's DNA will be determined. Endit