Exploring temporal patterns of bacterial and fungal DNA accumulation on a ventilation system filter for a Singapore university library

PloS One
Irvan LuhungW W Nazaroff

Abstract

Ventilation system filters process recirculated indoor air along with outdoor air. This function inspires the idea of using the filter as an indoor bioaerosol sampler. While promising, there remains a need to investigate several factors that could limit the accuracy of such a sampling approach. Among the important factors are the dynamics of microbial assemblages on filter surfaces over time and the differential influence of outdoor versus recirculated indoor air. This study collected ventilation system filter samples from an air handling unit on a regular schedule over a 21-week period and analyzed the accumulation patterns of biological particles on the filter both quantitatively (using fluorometry and qPCR) and in terms of microbial diversity (using 16S rDNA and ITS sequencing). The quantitative result showed that total and bacterial DNA accumulated monotonically, rising to 41 ng/cm2 for total DNA and to 2.8 ng/cm2 for bacterial DNA over the 21-week period. The accumulation rate of bacterial DNA correlated with indoor occupancy level. Fungal DNA first rose to 4.0 ng/cm2 before showing a dip to 1.4 ng/cm2 between weeks 6 and 10. The dip indicated a possible artifact of this sampling approach for quantitative analysis as DNA m...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 19, 2020·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Dingmeng WuRan Gao
Apr 18, 2021·NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes·Irvan LuhungStephan C Schuster

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
PCR

Software Mentioned

QIIME
RDP
Galaxy Tool
Trimmomatic
mothur
FHiTINGS
BLASTN

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