Airborne and Grain Dust Fungal Community Compositions Are Shaped Regionally by Plant Genotypes and Farming Practices.

ABSTRACT: Chronic exposure to airborne fungi has been associated with different respiratory symptoms and pathologies in occupational populations, such as grain workers. However, the homogeneity in the fungal species composition of these bioaerosols on a large geographical scale and the different drivers that shape these fungal communities remain unclear. In this study, the diversity of fungi in grain dust and in the aerosols released during harvesting was determined across 96 sites at a geographical scale of 560 km(2) along an elevation gradient of 500 m by tag-encoded 454 pyrosequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. Associations between the structure of fungal communities in the grain dust and different abiotic (farming system, soil characteristics, and geographic and climatic

SUBMITTER: Pellissier L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4807515 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature