The Impact of Sampler Selection on Characterizing the Indoor Microbiome

Publication date: Available online 9 May 2014
Source:Building and Environment
Author(s): Andrew Hoisington , Juan Pedro Maestre , Maria D. King , Jeffrey A. Siegel , Kerry A. Kinney
Recognition of potential health effects of microorganisms in the indoor environment paired with recent advances in sampling and microbial sequencing techniques have led to an expansion in indoor microbial studies. However, the type and placement of samplers utilized in these studies vary substantially. The purpose of this study was to compare the microbial communities recovered from six different samplers (two passive and four active) placed in the same building over two consecutive sampling events spaced one week apart. All samples collected were subjected to pyrosequencing to provide an in-depth analysis of the bacterial and fungal communities present. The microbial communities collected from the passive samplers (settled dust and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning filter dust samplers) were much more diverse than the shorter term samples collected by four active bioaerosol samplers. There were significant differences in the microbial community structures recovered by the six samplers. The microbial communities recovered from a given sampler were most closely related to samples collected at different times from the same sampler versus those collected during the same sampling event with a different sampler. These results indicate that when comparing between multiple studies, caution is recommended as each sampler may be collecting a different microbial community.