Skills

The Anthropocene is a term used to denote the time in which humankind has become a planetary force for change¹. Although its starting point is disputed — ranging from the Neolithic Revolution (12,000–15,000 years ago)² to as recently as the 1960s³ — it is undeniable that, as humanity keeps transforming itself and nature, the entire biosphere is experiencing unprecedented, human-associated pressures.

Many bacteria have emerged with novel adaptive strategies and, in turn, have profoundly affected us. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, for example, may have benefited from the use of fire: soot particles and fire-related lung injuries fostered its coexistence with host immune cells⁴. Various Salmonella lineages become more active during leaps in human productivity: some settle down in livestock breeding and strengthen their adaptations in farm animals⁵, others thrive in urban sewage networks and evolve into highly dangerous pathogens⁶.

Enhanced adaptability tends toward two extremes — either reinforcing traditional ecological routes or breaking away from them entirely — thereby reshaping microbial transmission dynamics.

To build a genomic framework for analysing the adaptive strategies and transmission pathways of microbes in the current epoch, my colleagues and I have pursued three research directions above. To me, these very skills serve as evidence that I myself am adaptively evolving to (and alongside) microbial research — a perfect illustration of co-evolution! 😆