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Using qPCR and microscopy to assess the impact of harvesting and weather conditions on the relationship between Alternaria alternata and Alternaria spp. spores in rural and urban atmospheres.

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Apangu, Godfrey, Frisk, Carl ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9722-2544, Adams-Groom, Beverley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1097-8876, Petch, Geoffrey, Hanson, Mary and Skjøth, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-9568 (2023) Using qPCR and microscopy to assess the impact of harvesting and weather conditions on the relationship between Alternaria alternata and Alternaria spp. spores in rural and urban atmospheres. International Journal of Biometeorology. ISSN 1432-1254

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-023-02480-w

Abstract

Alternaria is a plant pathogen and human allergen. Alternaria alternata is one of the most abundant fungal spores in the air. The purpose of this study was to examine whether Alternaria spp. spore concentrations can be used to predict the abundance and spatio-temporal pattern of A. alternata spores in the air. This was investigated by testing the hypothesis that A. alternata dominates airborne Alternaria spp. spores and varies spatio-temporally. Secondarily, we aimed at investigating the relationship between airborne Alternaria spp. spores and the DNA profile of A. alternata spores between two proximate (~ 7 km apart) sites. These were examined by sampling Alternaria spp. spores using Burkard 7-day and cyclone samplers for the period 2016-2018 at Worcester and Lakeside campuses of the University of Worcester, UK. Daily Alternaria spp. spores from the Burkard traps were identified using optical microscopy whilst A. alternata from the cyclone samples was detected and quantified using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The results showed that either A. alternata or other Alternaria species spores dominate the airborne Alternaria spore concentrations, generally depending on weather conditions. Furthermore, although Alternaria spp. spore concentrations were similar for the two proximate sites, A. alternata spore concentrations significantly varied for those sites and it is highly likely that the airborne samples contained large amounts of small fragments of A. alternata. Overall, the study shows that there is a higher abundance of airborne Alternaria allergen than reported by aerobiological networks and the majority is likely to be from spore and hyphal fragments. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. The Author(s).]

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords:	Concentration, Microbiology, Allergens, eDNA, Fungi
Divisions:	College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences > School of Science and the Environment
SWORD Depositor:	Prof. Pub Router
Depositing User:	Prof. Pub Router
Date Deposited:	31 May 2023 15:28
Last Modified:	07 Jun 2023 07:33
URI:	https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12942

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