AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Coupling a Viable Bioaerosol Collector (VBAC) with Pyrosequencing to Characterize a Dynamic Bioaerosolization Event
Juan Pedro Maestre, Andrew Hoisington, Sungwoo Bae, Maria D. King, KERRY KINNEY, The University of Texas at Austin
Abstract Number: 502 Working Group: The Indoor Microbiome
Abstract Short-term, dynamic bioaerosol events can be difficult to capture in conventional bioaerosol sampling units that have low sampling rates and potentially poor microbial recovery. This difficulty is compounded by culture-based analysis of the recovered organisms which can greatly underestimate the diversity of the microorganisms actually present. In the current work, a high flow (100 L/min) Viable Bioaerosol Collector (VBAC) was used to capture the bioaerosols generated over a 15 minute period in an operating shower stall. The VBAC was also used to collect 15-minute bioaerosol samples prior to and following shower operation to investigate how the airborne microbiome changed in response to the short term event. To provide a basis for comparison, an impinger-based bioaerosol sample and a filter sample of the bioaerosol were also collected simultaneously. All the collected samples were quantitated by traditional culturing on agar media and real-time PCR, using universal ITS primers and also specific oligonucleotides developed by EPA for the analysis of the most frequently occurring indoor fungal strains.
DNA extraction of the microorganisms recovered in the VBAC coupled with pyrosequencing analysis indicates that a diverse range of fungi were present in the bioaerosol generated during the 15-minute shower event. The dominant fungal species identified in the shower aerosol was Alternaria alternata, which is usually considered a potent outdoor asthma trigger. Sequencing of the microorganisms captured in the impinger and filter samplers yields a much less diverse community which suggests that these sampling techniques have difficulty capturing short-term, dynamic events. Pyrosequencing of the bacteria captured in the bioaerosol samplers will provide a valuable comparison to the fungal results collected to date. In addition, the presence of potential bacterial pathogens in the bioaerosol and the likely source of the microorganisms (e.g., water distribution line, shower biofilm) will be investigated.