Can chemical and molecular biomarkers help discriminate between industrial, rural and urban environments?

Abstract

Air samples from four contrasting outdoor environments including a park, an arable farm, a waste water treatment plant and a composting facility were analysed during the summer and winter months. The aim of the research was to study the feasibility of differentiating microbial communities from urban, rural and industrial areas between seasons with chemical and molecular markers such as microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs). Air samples (3l) were collected every 2h for a total of 6h in order to assess the temporal variations of MVOCs and PLFAs along the day. MVOCs and VOCs concentrations varied over the day, especially in the composting facility which was the site where more human activities were carried out. At this site, total VOC concentration varied between 80 and 170μgm in summer and 20-250μgm in winter. The composition of MVOCs varied between sites due to the different biological substrates including crops, waste water, green waste or grass. MVOCs composition also differed between seasons as in summer they are more likely to get modified by oxidation processes in the atmosphere and in winter by reduction processes. The composition of microbial communities identified by the analysis of PLFAs also varied among the different locations and between seasons. The location with higher concentrations of PLFAs in summer was the farm (7297ngm) and in winter the park (11,724ngm). A specific set of MVOCs and PLFAs that most represent each one of the locations was identified by principal component analyses (PCA) and canonical analyses. Further to this, concentrations of both total VOCs and PLFAs were at least three times higher in winter than in summer. The difference in concentrations between summer and winter suggest that seasonal variations should be considered when assessing the risk of exposure to these compounds.

Combining Chemometrics and Sensors: Toward New Applications in Monitoring and Environmental Analysis

“…When chemical and molecular targets are combined, unknown inferences can be made if the end-user is an expert in designing experiments or using data that proves the original hypothesis the scientist has designed. For example, a study using four contrasting sites were monitored during two consecutive seasons (summer and winter) in order to evaluate the feasibility of differentiating microbial communities from urban, rural, and industrial areas for the two seasons using air as the sample matrix . The researchers combined chemical and molecular markers to analyze and interpret the phospholipid (PL) and fatty acid (FA) changes associated with the temporal variations in these compounds over the sampling regime.…”

“…The MVOC, PL, and FA that represented each of the locations were analyzed using PCA and canonical analyses. The researchers demonstrated that the concentration of MVOC, PL, and FA presented a 3-fold increase in concentration in winter than in summer . The observed differences in concentrations between the seasons suggested the importance of measuring variability for winter and summer and should be a consideration in measuring exposure to potential chemicals in the environment.…”

In Vitro Systems for Toxicity Evaluation of Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds on Humans: Current Status and Trends

“…However, the composition of the mVOCs of cultured fungi is not known, which makes a proper fingerprinting and profiling even more important. Compared to mVOCs in the outdoor environment, which are usually characterized by low abundancies and their dependency on meteorological factors [60][61][62], we would expect indoor environments to contain higher thresholds of mVOCs. MVOCs are described as useful for profiling and fingerprinting purposes, since they can help detect masked contamination by molds in houses [63,64].…”

DNA methylome signatures as epigenetic biomarkers of hexanal associated with lung toxicity

“…Previous studies demonstrated that exposure to mVOCs may induce diverse adverse health effects such as irritation of the respiratory tract and eyes and inflammatory responses ( Korpi, Järnberg & Pasanen, 2009 ; Thorn & Greenman, 2012 ). Of the more than 1,000 compounds of mVOCs, aldehydes are a predominant group ( Garcia-Alcega et al, 2018 ). However, the toxicological data of mVOCs using omics technologies is still not well understood.…”