Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mendes, L
• Whitby, C
• Eleftheriadis, K
• Grydaki, N
• Colbeck, I

Titel

Bioaerosols in the Athens Metro: Metagenetic insights into the PM.sub.10 microbiome in a naturally ventilated subway station

Ist Teil von

• Environment international, 2021-01, Vol.146

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Keywords Metro; Bioaerosols; PM.sub.10; Bacteria; Fungi; High throughput sequencing Highlights * This is the first study of bioaerosols in the Athens Metro system. * We used ITS sequencing to characterise subway aerosol mycobiome diversity. * Bacterial and fungal taxa of environmental origin dominated the Metro station PM.sub.10. * Outdoor air and commuters are key sources of subway microbial airborne particles. To date, few studies have examined the aerosol microbial content in Metro transportation systems. Here we characterised the aerosol microbial abundance, diversity and composition in the Athens underground railway system. PM.sub.10 filter samples were collected from the naturally ventilated Athens Metro Line 3 station "Nomismatokopio". Quantitative PCR of the 16S rRNA gene and high throughput amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was performed on DNA extracted from PM.sub.10 samples. Results showed that, despite the bacterial abundance (mean = 2.82 x 10.sup.5 16S rRNA genes/m.sup.3 of air) being, on average, higher during day-time and weekdays, compared to night-time and weekends, respectively, the differences were not statistically significant. The average PM.sub.10 mass concentration on the platform was 107 [mu]g/m.sup.3. However, there was no significant correlation between 16S rRNA gene abundance and overall PM.sub.10 levels. The Athens Metro air microbiome was mostly dominated by bacterial and fungal taxa of environmental origin (e.g. Paracoccus, Sphingomonas, Cladosporium, Mycosphaerella, Antrodia) with a lower contribution of human commensal bacteria (e.g. Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus). This study highlights the importance of both outdoor air and commuters as sources in shaping aerosol microbial communities. To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterise the mycobiome diversity in the air of a Metro environment based on amplicon sequencing of the ITS region. In conclusion, this study presents the first microbial characterisation of PM.sub.10 in the Athens Metro, contributing to the growing body of microbiome exploration within urban transit networks. Moreover, this study shows the vulnerability of public transport to airborne disease transmission. Author Affiliation: (a) School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ Essex, UK (b) Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety -- Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory, N.C.S.R. "Demokritos", Aghia Paraskevi, 15310 Athens, Greece * Corresponding author. Article History: Received 15 April 2020; Revised 30 July 2020; Accepted 2 October 2020 (miscellaneous) Handling editor: Hefa Cheng Byline: N. Grydaki (a), I. Colbeck (a), L. Mendes (b), K. Eleftheriadis (b), C. Whitby [cwhitby@essex.ac.uk] (a,*)