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Moisture Influences Both Fungal Gene Expression and MVOC Emissions from Carpet and Dust
SARAH R. HAINES, Emma C. Hall, Pawel K. Misztal, Allen Goldstein, Rachel I. Adams, Karen C. Dannemiller, The Ohio State University
Abstract Number: 212
Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract
Microorganisms grow at elevated humidity levels (>80%) in carpet and dust and may release microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) during this growth. Microbes in dust are also metabolically active with metabolic activity increasing with increasing humidity levels. We currently do not understand the relationship between gene expression and the release of mVOCs from microbes in dust at different moisture conditions. The goal of this work was to elucidate how gene expression relates to mVOC emissions at increasing moisture levels. A de novo metranscriptome study was performed utilizing samples of dust only and carpet with dust incubated at 50%, 85% or 95% equilibrium relative humidity for a period of 14 days. Emissions were measured in real time using a proton transfer time-of-flight mass spectrum (PTR-TOF-MS) allowing for unprecedented detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A total 1,140,619,252 paired-end reads were produced from NovaSeq RNA sequencing. After quality trimming, 2,065,127 contigs with a median contig length of 517 were assembled. Results revealed differences in the emissions profile of dust only samples compared to carpet with dust. The total emissions from carpet with dust samples ranged from 8.5 – 9.0 µg/hr over each relative humidity while the dust only samples ranged from 0.22 – 3.1 µg/hr, increasing with moisture level. Across both dust and carpet with dust samples the majority of emissions belonged to the CxHyH+ family. C5H10H+ (cyclopentane or pentene) was the most abundantly emitted compound for each sample type. Ultimately, moisture influenced both fungal gene expression and mVOC emissions from carpet and dust.