Comprehensive Fungal Community Analysis of House Dust Using Next-Generation Sequencing

Abstract

Fungal community analyses in homes have been attracting attention because fungi are now generally considered to be allergens. Currently, these analyses are generally conducted using the culture method, although fungal communities in households often contain species that are difficult to culture. In contrast, next-generation sequencing (NGS) represents a comprehensive, labor- and time-saving approach that can facilitate species identification. However, the reliability of the NGS method has not been compared to that of the culture method. In this study, in an attempt to demonstrate the reliability of this application, we used the NGS method to target the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) in the fungal genome, conducted fungal community analyses for 18 house-dust samples and analyzed fungal community structures. The NGS method positively correlated with the culture method regarding the relative abundance of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium and yeasts, which represent the major fungal components found in houses. Furthermore, several genera, such as Malassezia, could be sensitively detected. Our results imply that the reliability of the NGS method is comparable to that of the culture method and indicates that easily available databases may require modifications, including the removal of registrations that have not been sufficiently classified at the genus level.

Single-Point Nail Sampling to Diagnose Onychomycosis Caused by Non-Dermatophyte Molds: Utility of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Histopathology

“…Though rates of NDM detection appear lower with PCR, this is likely due to the restrictions of PCR testing to seven NDM genera. NDMs here are underestimated; per other studies, a much wider variety of species is likely detectable in toenails [19][20][21][22]. Broader molecular detection of NDM species in correlation with histopathology would provide a better determination of the utility of single NDM detection for predicting the positive presence of NDMs in nail samples.…”

High dietary and habitat diversity indicate generalist behaviors of northern bog lemmings Synaptomys borealis in Alaska, USA

“…(1) they may have been consumed incidentally with other foods, (2) they occur naturally in the intestinal tracts of NBL, or (3) they entered samples as laboratory contaminants (de Sousa et al 2019). The yeast Vishniacozyma, for example, is commonly associated with household dust (Izawa et al 2020), and we cannot exclude it as a potential contaminant from the lab. Some Vishniacozyma yeasts (e.g.…”

Sampling locations and processing methods shape fungi microbiome on the surface of edible and medicinal Arecae semen

“…A total of 2,706,500 high-quality reads (200–500 bp) were obtained from 36 samples. The obtained amplified sequence variants (ASVs) were used to analyze the diversity and taxonomic composition of Arecae semen ( Izawa et al, 2020 ). The representative sequences of the ASVs were classified at the kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species levels in accordance with the UNITE and INSDC databases ( Kõljalg et al, 2013 ; Nilsson et al, 2019b ).…”