Fungal Spore Richness and Abundance of Allergenic Taxa: Comparing a Portable Impactor and Passive Trap Indoors and Outdoors in an Urban Setting

Abstract

Fungal spores are common airborne allergens, and fungal richness has been implicated in allergic disease. Amplicon sequencing of environmental DNA from air samples is a promising method to estimate fungal spore richness with semi-quantification of hundreds of taxa and can be combined with quantitative PCR to derive abundance estimates. However, it remains unclear how the choice of air sampling method influences these estimates. This study compared active sampling with a portable impactor and passive sampling with a passive trap over different durations to estimate fungal spore richness and the abundance of allergenic taxa. Air sampling was conducted indoors and outdoors at 12 residences, including repeated measurements with a portable impactor and passive traps with 1-day and 7-day durations. ITS2 amplicon sequence data were transformed to spore equivalents estimated by quantitative PCR, repeated active samples were combined, and abundance-based rarefaction was performed to standardize sample coverage for estimation of genus-level richness and spore abundance. Rarefied fungal richness was similar between methods indoors but higher for passive traps with a 7-day duration outdoors. Rarefied abundance of allergenic genera was similar between methods but some genera had lower abundance for passive traps with a 1-day duration, which differed indoors and outdoors indicating stochasticity in the collection of spores on collocated samplers. This study found that similar estimates of fungal spore richness and abundance of allergenic taxa can be obtained using a portable impactor or a passive trap within one day and that increased passive sample duration provides limited additional information.