Israel is subjected to sand and dust storms
from several directions: northeast from the Sahara, northwest from Saudi
Arabia and southwest from the desert regions of Syria. The airborne
dust carried in these storms affects the health of people and ecosystems
alike. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that
part of the effect might not be in the particles of dust but rather in
bacteria that cling to them, traveling many kilometers in the air with
the storms.
Some of these bacteria might be pathogenic -- harmful to us or the
environment -- and a few of them also carry genes for antibiotic
resistance. Others may induce ecosystem functions such as nitrogen
fixation. Prof. Yinon Rudich and his research group, including
postdoctoral fellow Dr. Daniela Gat and former research student Yinon
Mazar, in Weizmann's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department
investigated the genetics of the windborne bacteria arriving along with
the dust.https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170627105407.htm
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