The Response of Airborne Mycobiome to Dust Storms in the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Airborne microbial communities directly impact the health of humans, animals, plants, and receiving ecosystems. While airborne bacterial and fungal communities have been studied by both cultivation-based methods and metabarcoding surveys targeting specific molecular markers, fewer studies have used shotgun metagenomics to study the airborne mycobiome. We analyzed the diversity and relative abundance of fungi in nine airborne metagenomes collected on clear days (“background”) and during dust storms in the Eastern Mediterranean. The negative correlation between the relative abundance of fungal reads and the concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter having an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm (PM10) indicate that dust storms lower the proportion of fungi in the airborne microbiome, possibly due to the lower relative abundance of fungi in the dust storm source regions and/or more effective transport of bacteria by the dust. Airborne fungal community composition was altered by the dust storms, particularly those originated from Syria, which was enriched with xerophilic fungi. We reconstructed a high-quality fungal metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) from the order Cladosporiales, which include fungi known to adapt to environmental extremes commonly faced by airborne microbes. The negative correlation between the relative abundance of Cladosporiales MAG and PM10 concentrations indicate that its origin is dominated by local sources and likely includes the indoor environments found in the city.

The Airborne Mycobiota of a Dust Storm in Comparison with a Calm Climate in Erbil City-Iraq

“…The relatively minor differences among previous studies are due to the original regions of the storms, which are regarded as the main effective factor in air dust mycobiota (Peng et al,2021). Furthermore, the fungal populations in S1 and S2 showed a great dissimilarity after Jaccard's index that ranged from (0-1).…”

“…Phom were described as xerophilic and xero-tolerant fungi(Petrovič et al,2000) Moreover, they are dematiaceous and can produce a great number of dry conidia. Such traits enable them to survive along with the storm's dust(Peng et al, 2021).There is a lack of information about the aerobiology of dust storms in Iraq.Al-Dabbas et al (2010) discussed it according to a geological view, where the study covered the middle part of Iraq, and the dust storms for 4 months(12/2008-3/2009) were analyzed. They counted a total of 647 particles from 8 dust storms, The largest isolates were related to culturable bacteria and fungi.…”

Functional Genes Profile of Atmospheric Dust in the East Mediterranean Suggests Widespread Anthropogenic Influence on Aerobiome Composition

“…Samples Dust_2 to Dust_5 were obtained by pooling DNA from several sampling events (after Peng et al. (2021)).…”

“…Fewer studies on the aerobiome have collected sufficient material to obtain the DNA concentrations required for metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing. These studies explored different anthropogenic environments, such as farms and cities (Be et al., 2014; Cao et al., 2014; Tringe et al., 2008; Yooseph et al., 2013), natural environments in various geographic locations (Tignat‐Perrier, Dommergue, Thollot, Magand, Vogel, et al., 2020), and different aerosol types, for example, cloud‐condensation droplets (Amato et al., 2019) and atmospheric dust (Aalismail et al., 2019; Peng et al., 2021). The studies provided preliminary insights into the aerobiome's potential functions.…”

Relative viability proxy of airborne prokaryotic microorganisms at the Southeastern Mediterranean coastal Sea

“…Transport and deposition of dust during storms, or the frequency and intensity of the pulses of deposition, may also contribute to the observed variability in ecosystem responses (Giovagnetti et al, 2013). Another factor that may contribute to the observed variability, which has been far less investigated, is the supply of airborne microorganisms upon aerosols deposition to the surface water (Polymenakou, 2012;Peter et al, 2014;Rahav et al, 2016a), resulting in unique interaction with the in situ microbial communities (Mescioglu et al, 2019b;Fragola et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2021).…”