Characterization of fungi in office dust: Comparing results of microbial secondary metabolites, fungal internal transcribed spacer region sequencing, viable culture and other microbial indices.

ABSTRACT: Recent developments in molecular and chemical methods have enabled the analysis of fungal DNA and secondary metabolites, often produced during fungal growth, in environmental samples. We compared 3 fungal analytical methods by analysing floor dust samples collected from an office building for fungi using viable culture, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing and secondary metabolites using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Of the 32 metabolites identified, 29 had a potential link to fungi with levels ranging from 0.04 (minimum for alternariol monomethylether) to 5700 ng/g (maximum for neoechinulin A). The number of fungal metabolites quantified per sample ranged from 8 to 16 (average = 13/sample). We identified 216 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with the numb

SUBMITTER: Park JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6215746 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature