Humankind has become a primary driver of global environmental and climate change. The extent
of planetary change is such that it has been proposed to classify the current geological age as the
‘Anthropocene’. Anthropogenic environmental degradation presents numerous threats to human
health and wellbeing, including an increased risk ...
Humankind has become a primary driver of global environmental and climate change. The extent
of planetary change is such that it has been proposed to classify the current geological age as the
‘Anthropocene’. Anthropogenic environmental degradation presents numerous threats to human
health and wellbeing, including an increased risk of infectious disease. This review focuses on
how processes such as pollution, climate change and human-mediated dispersal could affect the
evolution of bacterial pathogens. Effects of environmental change on the ‘big five’ of evolution:
mutation rate, recombination (horizontal gene transfer), migration, selection and drift are
discussed. Microplastic pollution is used as a case study to highlight the combined effects of some
of these processes on the evolutionary diversification of human pathogens. Although the evidence
is still incomplete, a picture is emerging that environmental pathogens could evolve at increased
rates in the Anthropocene, with potential consequences for human infection.