Seasonal variation of airborne fungi of the Tiantishan Grottoes andWestern Xia Museum,Wuwei,China

In this study,a systematic survey of cultural airborne fungi was carried out in the occurrence environments of wall paintings that are preserved in the Tiantishan Grottoes and the Western Xia Museum,China.A bio-aerosol sampler was used for sampling in four seasons in 2016.Culture-dependent and-independent methods were taken to acquire airborne fungal concentration and purified strains;by the extraction of genomic DNA,amplification of fungal ITS rRNA gene region,sequencing,and phylogenetic analysis,thereafter the fungal community composition and distribution characteristics of different study sites were clarified.We disclosure the main environmental factors which may be responsible for dynamic changes of airborne fungi at the sampling sites.The concentration of cultural airborne fungi was in a range from 13 to 1,576 CFU/m^(3),no significant difference between the two sites at the Tiantishan Grottoes,with obvious characteristics of seasonal variation,in winter and spring were higher than in summer and autumn.Also,there was a significant difference in fungal concentration between the inside and outside of the Western Xia Museum,the outside of the museum was far more than the inside of the museum in the four seasons,particularly in the winter.Eight fungal genera were detected,including Cladosporium,Penicillium,Alternaria,and Filobasidium as the dominant groups.The airborne fungal community structures of the Tiantishan Grottoes show a distinct characteristic of seasonal variation and spatial distribution.Relative humidity,temperature and seasonal rainfall influence airborne fungal distribution.Some of the isolated strains have the potential to cause biodeterioration of ancient wall paintings.This study provides supporting information for the pre-warning conservation of cultural relics that are preserved at local sites and inside museums.

Indoor Surveillance of Airborne Fungi Contaminating Intensive Care Units and Operation Rooms in Assiut University Hospitals, Egypt

Mycoflora of atmospheric air and dust samples collected from air conditioning systems in 12 of each I.C.U. （intensive care units） and O.R. （operation rooms） were tested using settle and dilution plate methods on four types of agar media and incubated at 25℃. Forty-five fungal species representing 23 genera were isolated and identified. The most prevalent genera recorded were Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. The total colony forming units of airborne fungi recovered in I.C.U. and O.R. ranged between 31.13-49.61 colonies/m3 on the four types of media usedl The fungal total catch of the dust samples collected from the air conditioning system filters in I.C.U. and O.R. were ranged from 65.5-170 colonies/mg dust. Since, the interest to replace synthetic xenobiotics by natural compounds with low environmental persistence and biodegradable to control such airborne fungal contaminants is needed. In this respect, essential oils showed to possess a broad spectrum of antifungal activity. Fungal static ability of six oils was tested on 30 different fungal isolates. Vapors of common thyme oil exhibited the strongest inhibitory effects on the tested isolates, whereas the headspace vapors of blue gum and ginger had no inhibitory effects on the tested fungal isolates. These data revealed that the air conditioning systems may be an important source of contamination in I.C.U. and O.R. of Assiut university hospitals. Thus, patients may be in risk of being exposed to contaminated atmospheric air by opportunistic fungi and the use of essential oils as an alternative option to control hospital wards from fungal contaminants needs further studies.

Fungal contaminations of indoor and outdoor air of buildings of the University of Cape Coast,Ghana

The presence of microscopic spores in the air affects the quality of air inhaled by animals including humans.Microbial contamination of air impacts the well-being of occupants of an indoor environment,sometimes with dire consequences.The study investigated fungal contaminations of indoor and outdoor air of the Hospital,Library and Senior Common Room(SCR)of the University of Cape Coast,Ghana.Indoor and outdoor air was sampled using the Koch’s sedimentation method.Colony forming units per cubic meter of air(cfu/m^(3))were determined with the Omeliansky formula.The isolated fungi were identified based on morphological and growth characteristics.For indoor air,the least colony counts were recorded in the SCR for both morning and afternoon samples,whilst the Hospital air had the highest colony counts.For outdoor air,the colony counts were lower in SCR and the Library for both morning and afternoon samples compared to the Hospital.The results further indicated that indoor concentrations of fungi,for morning and afternoon,ranged between 4.0x10^(4) and 2.1x10^(5) cfu/m^(3),whereas outdoor concentrations of fungi ranged between 1.1x105 and 3.0x10^(5) cfu/m^(3),revealing an overall higher levels of contamination of outdoor air than indoor air at all the three buildings.Consequently,estimated indoor/outdoor(I/O)concentration ratios of fungi revealed an exogenous source of indoor contaminations at all the three buildings sampled.Fungi isolated from indoor and outdoor air were of the genera Aspergillus,Curvularia,Cylindrocarpon,Fusarium,Mucor,Neurospora,Penicillium and Rhodotorula.We conclude that indoor and outdoor air of the buildings sampled were contaminated with airborne fungi;however,based on estimated I/O ratios,the indoor ambient conditions of the buildings were good.The implication of findings of this study is that the presence of airborne fungal contaminants of indoor and outdoor workplace environment may pose serious occupational health consequences,hence low productivity.