Validation of the Hirst-type spore trap for simultaneous monitoring of prokaryotic and eukaryotic biodiversities in urban air samples by next-generation sequencing

Pollen, fungi, and bacteria are the main microscopic biological entities present in outdoor air, causing allergy symptoms and disease transmission and having a significant role in atmosphere dynamics. Despite their relevance, a method for monitoring simultaneously these biological particles in metro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Núñez, Andrés, Paz, Guillermo A. de, Ferencova, Zuzana, Rastrojo, Alberto, Guantes, Raúl, García, Ana M., Alcamí, Antonio, Gutiérrez-Bustillo, A. Montserrat, Moreno, Diego A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/166708
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/166708
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Methods in aerobiology
Airborne biodiversity
Hirst-type spore trap
Bioaerosol monitoring
Next-generation sequencing
Descripción
Sumario:Pollen, fungi, and bacteria are the main microscopic biological entities present in outdoor air, causing allergy symptoms and disease transmission and having a significant role in atmosphere dynamics. Despite their relevance, a method for monitoring simultaneously these biological particles in metropolitan environments has not yet been developed. Here, we assessed the use of the Hirst-type spore trap to characterize the global airborne biota by high-throughput DNA sequencing, selecting regions of the 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer for the taxonomic assignment. We showed that aerobiological communities are well represented by this approach. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of two traps working synchronically compiled >87% of the total relative abundance for bacterial diversity collected in each sampler, >89% for fungi, and >97% for pollen. We found a good correspondence between traditional characterization by microscopy and genetic identification, obtaining more-accurate taxonomic assignments and detecting a greater diversity using the latter. We also demonstrated that DNA sequencing accurately detects differences in biodiversity between samples. We concluded that high-throughput DNA sequencing applied to aerobiological samples obtained with Hirst spore traps provides reliable results and can be easily implemented for monitoring prokaryotic and eukaryotic entities present in the air of urban areas.