Microbial diversity in biodeteriorated Greek historical documents dating back to the 19th and 20th century: A case study

Abstract

Paper documents in archives, libraries, and museums often undergo biodeterioration by microorganisms. Fungi and less often bacteria have been described to advance paper staining, so called “foxing” and degradation of paper substrates. In this study, for the first time, the fungal and bacterial diversity in biodeteriorated paper documents of Hellenic General State Archives dating back to the 19th and 20th century has been assessed by culture‐dependent and independent methods. The internally transcribed spacer (ITS) region and 16S rRNA gene were amplified by PCR from fungal and bacterial isolates and amplicons were sequenced. Sequence analysis and phylogeny revealed fungal phylotypes like Penicillium sp., Cladosporium sp., Penicillium citrinum, Alternaria infectoria, Alternaria alternata, Epicoccum nigrum, and Penicillium chrysogenum which are often implicated in paper deterioration. Bacterial phylotypes closely related to known biodeteriogenic bacteria such as Bacillus spp., Micrococcus spp., Kocuria sp. in accordance with previous studies were characterized. Among the fungal phylotypes described in this study are included well‐known allergens such as Penicillium spp., Alternaria spp., and Cladosporium spp. that impose a serious health threat on staff members and scholars. Furthermore, fungal isolates such as Chalastospora gossypii and Trametes ochracea have been identified and implicated in biodeterioration of historical paper manuscripts in this study for the first time. Certain new or less known fungi and bacteria implicated in paper degradation were retrieved, indicating that particular ambient conditions, substrate chemistry, or even location might influence the composition of colonizing microbiota.

Fungal stains on paper: is what you see what you get?

“…Accordingly, this fungus is known to produce yellow-orange soluble colourants [32]. P. citrinum is commonly identified from paper collections [3,6,8,[33][34][35] and has shown to possess high amylolytic activity but low cellulolytic activity [36]. Even though, in the purple area of this same stain (Figure 4a), several 2-3 μm spherical conidia with roughened walls were observed within the fibres (Figure 4b) under SEM.…”

“…Fungi have been identified from paper sampling either by classic morphology identification or DNA sequencing (by culture dependent processes or direct DNA extraction) [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Different methods of analysis have their pros and cons.…”

Cellulase production in Lysinibacillus sp isolated from the estuaries of Odisha

“…The 16s rRNA gene was amplifi ed from the genomic DNA of all the isolates. The primers used in the study are as follows (Frank et al, 2008;Karakasidou et al, 2018): BAC27F AGAGTTTGATCCTG-GCTCAG BAC1492RGGTTACCTTGTTACGACTT: The PCR was carried out at initial denaturation of95°C/5min, denaturation of 95°C/30sec, annealing at 42°C/1min, extension at 72°C/1min 30sec and fi nal extension at 72°C/5min. This was repeated for 30 cycles.The sequenc-ing of the purifi ed PCR product was done using the BAC27F forward primer.…”

Protecting books from mould damage by decreasing paper bioreceptivity to fungal attack using decoloured cell‐free supernatant ofLysobacter enzymogenesC3

“…; Karakasidou et al . ). These types of fungi are persistent and the majority are characterized by high enzyme activity, which allows them to easily attach to substrates rich in lignin–cellulose or other related materials and gradually decompose the substrates (Lugauskas and Krikstaponis ).…”

“…However, due to its organic components, it suffers from fungal biodeterioration (Zyska 1997;Florian and Manning 2000;Szczepanowska and Cavaliere 2000;Cappitelli and Sorlini 2005;Cappitelli et al 2010;Mazzoli et al 2018). A number of fungal species are involved in such a biodeterioration, with mitosporic fungi making up the vast majority (Sterflinger 2010;Lech 2016;Sawoszczuk et al 2017;Karakasidou et al 2018). These types of fungi are persistent and the majority are characterized by high enzyme activity, which allows them to easily attach to substrates rich in lignin-cellulose or other related materials and gradually decompose the substrates (Lugauskas and Krikstaponis 2004).…”