Humans differ in their personal microbial cloud

Abstract

Dispersal of microbes between humans and the built environment can occur through direct contact with surfaces or through airborne release; the latter mechanism remains poorly understood. Humans emit upwards of 10 ⁶ biological particles per hour, and have long been known to transmit pathogens to other individuals and to indoor surfaces. However it has not previously been demonstrated that humans emit a detectible microbial cloud into surrounding indoor air, nor whether such clouds are sufficiently differentiated to allow the identification of individual occupants. We used high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to characterize the airborne bacterial contribution of a single person sitting in a sanitized custom experimental climate chamber. We compared that to air sampled in an adjacent, identical, unoccupied chamber, as well as to supply and exhaust air sources. Additionally, we assessed microbial communities in settled particles surrounding each occupant, to investigate the potential long-term fate of airborne microbial emissions. Most occupants could be clearly detected by their airborne bacterial emissions, as well as their contribution to settled particles, within 1.5–4 h. Bacterial clouds from the occupants were statistically distinct, allowing the identification of some individual occupants. Our results confirm that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one, and demonstrate for the first time that individuals release their own personalized microbial cloud.

Contributors

James F. Meadow

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PeerJ

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PeerJ

Journal ID (pmc): PeerJ

Journal ID (publisher-id): PeerJ

Title: PeerJ

Publisher: PeerJ Inc. (San Francisco, USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 2167-8359

Publication date (Electronic): 22 September 2015

Publication date Collection: 2015

Volume: 3

Affiliations

[1 ]Biology and the Built Environment Center, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR, USA

[2 ]Department of Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR, USA

[3 ]Department of Architecture, Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR, USA

[4 ]Santa Fe Institute , Santa Fe, NM, USA

Article

Publisher ID: 1258

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1258

PMC ID: 4582947

Copyright statement: © 2015 Meadow et al.

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

Product

Self URI: https://peerj.com/articles/1258

Funding

Funded by: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Microbiology

This work was funded by a grant to the Biology and the Built Environment Center from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Microbiology for the Built Environment Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Categories

Subject: Ecology

Subject: Microbiology