Passive dust collectors for assessing airborne microbial material.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Settled airborne dust is used as a surrogate for airborne exposure in studies that explore indoor microbes. In order to determine whether detecting differences in dust environments would depend on the sampler type, we compared different passive, settled dust sampling approaches with respect to displaying qualitative and quantitative aspects of the bacterial and fungal indoor microbiota.

Results

Settled dust sampling approaches-utilizing plastic petri dishes, TefTex material, and electrostatic dustfall collectors (EDCs)-were evaluated in indoor spaces in the USA and Finland and in an experimental chamber study. The microbial content was analyzed with quantitative PCR (qPCR) to quantify total bacterial and fungal biomass and through high-throughput sequencing to exa

SUBMITTER: Adams RI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4593205 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature