New papers on microbiology of the built environment, April 13, 2016

New papers on the intersection of human activities and microbes, selected from my daily MicrobiomeDigest blog. Microbes in the house Generation and Characterization of Indoor Fungal Aerosols for Inhalation Studies – Anne Mette Madsen – Applied and Environmental Microbiology (OA) (…) The aim of this study was to develop an inhalation exposure system to be able to examine …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, April 3, 2016

Your weekly update with new papers on the microbiology of the built environment, and the effect of humans on microbial communities in a broader sense. Microbes in the house Microbial analyses of airborne dust collected from dormitory rooms predict the sex of occupants – Julia C Luongo – Indoor Air ($38 for PDF, $6 to …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, March 26, 2016

Your weekend update: Microbes and drinking water Diversity of ribosomal 16S DNA- and RNA-based bacterial community in an office building drinking water system – Jenni Inkinen – Journal of Applied Microbiology  (See also their 2014 Water Research paper about same system) Next-generation sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was used to characterize …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, March 12, 2016

Forensic microbiology A cloud of distinction – Julian Smith  –  New Scientist ($1.99) Could the trails of microbes we leave behind be used to solve crimes? Julian Smith picks up the scent. (…) Like our hapless suspect, we all leave traces of our microbes behind. We are haloed by an invisible nebula of bacteria, fungi and viruses. …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, February 6, 2016

Your weekly update of the literature on microbes of the built environment sensu lato. Microbes in the house Rhinitis, Ocular, Throat and Dermal Symptoms, Headache and Tiredness among Students in Schools from Johor Bahru, Malaysia: Associations with Fungal DNA and Mycotoxins in Classroom Dust – Dan Norbäck – PLOS ONE (OA) There are few studies …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, January 29, 2016

An oversight of the new papers that I found covering the intersection of humans, buildings, and microbes. Microbes in buildings Diversity of Bacterial Communities on Four Frequently Used Surfaces in a Large Brazilian Teaching Hospital – Tairacan Augusto Pereira da Fonseca – MDPI Int J Environ Res Public Health (OA) In this study, we aimed …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, January 18, 2016

New papers from the past week on the interactions between humans, buildings, and microbes. Microbes in buildings  Comprehensive analysis of the skin fungal microbiota of astronauts during a half-year stay at the International Space Station – Takashi Sugita – Medical Mycology ($$) The International Space Station (ISS) is a huge manned construct located approximately 400 km …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, January 5, 2016

Happy New Year to you all! Here are some interesting new papers that I found over the holidays. Floors Rapid assemblage of diverse environmental fungal communities on public restroom floors – Jennifer Fouquier – Indoor Air An increasing proportion of humanity lives in urban environments where they spend most of their lives indoors. Recent molecular studies …

Shifting Focus to the Good Bacteria in Water

Often on this blog, we talk about biofilms in water systems or water-borne pathogens. Even when we discuss the drinking water microbiome, it is seldom with a focus on any particularly beneficial bacteria. Although there has been some discussion about what essentially amounts to probiotics for water, there seems to be little literature in the area …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, December 19, 2015

New papers on microbes inside homes and musea, drinking water systems, during spa treatment, and in an urban estuary. Indoor air Relative and contextual contribution of different sources to the composition and abundance of indoor air bacteria in residences – Marzia Miletto and Steven E. Lindow – Microbiome (OA) We investigated the source-sink relationships of …