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  • Essay / The contribution of microbial ecology to the Millennium Development Goals

    Since their inception in 2015, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have tasked governments with building a multi-faceted approach to achieve an agreed list of development goals. objectives by 2030 (Akinsemolu, 2018). The rapid deterioration of the Earth's biosphere and the reduction in global quality of life have prompted the UN to develop targets that could mitigate the global impact of this damage. If achieved, 17 goals were postulated to promote environmental, economic and social sustainability as well as to continue the progress already made through the Millennium Development Goals (CBD-WHO, 2015). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay These objectives were built on the fact that human biospheric and behavioral processes are linked and dependent on each other (Timmis et al., 2017). . Such a link would imply that attempts to achieve one goal would promote the achievement of several other goals. Initially, it was perceived that there was no way to make a major contribution to achieving the SDGs through microbial ecology research, as it appears to be only a subset of a wide range of scientific fields. However, it has been realized that microbial ecology constitutes a fundamental cog in the multidisciplinary machine that drives the sustainable development practices necessary to achieve the SDGs. Microbial ecology research makes major contributions to biotechnology, agriculture, medical fields, food industries, and bioremediation industries (Barton and Northup, 2011). Therefore, its impact on the achievement of the SDGs is broad and multi-influencer in achieving several interrelated goals. A significant example is the research undertaken by O'Toole and Paoli (2017) to optimize the human microbiome for better health. Humans, animals and plants harbor communities of microbes; collectively called the microbiome (Willey, et al., 2014). Variations in these microbiomes often result in a loss of microbial metabolites and host pathway regulatory molecules. Building an individual's microbiome is crucial to maintaining health (Timmis et al., 2017). Therefore, disruptions in a microbiome such as that of the gut lead to diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity in people at high risk of developing such diseases. Microbial biotechnologists have developed a treatment for the microbiome; Living biotherapeutics. This serves to replenish lost vital microbial metabolites to restore an individual's health to that of the level associated with their former healthy microbiome (O'Toole and Paoli, 2017).