The Global Synanthrome Project: A Call for an Exhaustive Study of Human Associates

Robert R Dunn; Charles L Nunn; Julie E Horvath

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2016.09.007

The Global Synanthrome Project: A Call for an Exhaustive Study of Human Associates

Trends Parasitol. 2017 Jan;33(1):4-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.09.007. Epub 2016 Oct 4.

Authors

Robert R Dunn¹, Charles L Nunn², Julie E Horvath³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, NC, USA; Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
³ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA; Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC, USA.

PMID: 27717597
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.09.007

Abstract

Here we coin the term synanthrome to describe all of the species we interact with. We propose that the time is now here for The Global Synanthrome Project to describe all of our interacting species and how they have changed through time and across space. This effort must involve natural history, ecology, and evolutionary biology in addition to genomics studies that are already underway.

Keywords: chimpanzees; humans; parasites; pathogens; symbiosis; synanthrome.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
Ecosystem*
Genomics
Humans
Symbiosis