1. What do we know about the associated mycobiota
of the built environment?
Ulf Thrane
Danish Building Research Institute, Aalborg University Copenhagen, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen SV, Denmark -
Birgitte Andersen
DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads 221, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark –
‘Far too little’
The number of new fungal taxa is increasing rapidly, mainly due to the widespread use of molecular techniques for species delimitation, which has split old species into numerous more narrowly circumscribed species, but also changes in the taxonomic system have added to the confusion.
Consequently, the associated mycobiota of the built environment now consists of a few well-known species and many new species, of which we have very little chemical and physiological information.
Gaps in the “Body of Knowledge”
New species with no data on:
aw tolerance in the built environments
Material preference
pH tolerance
Metabolite and mycotoxin production
Impossible to use existing data – where are the old cultures/strains in the updated taxonomic system?
Clear division between the mycobiota (biomass on materials) and the spora (spores from outdoor air and indoor food)
Today Aspergillus section Versicolores consists of A. versicolor, A. sydowii and 15 other species. The species known to occur indoor are marked in yellow text. The specific A. versicolor DNA primers used by building inspectors will detect all species with no option to specify species according to the updated taxonomy of this important group in the built environment.
Visagie et al. (2014) Stud. Mycol. 78: 63; Jakšić Despot et al. (2017) Mycol. Progr. 16: 63; Jurjevic et al. (2012) IMA Fungus 3: 59
Aspergillus
versicolor
A. puulaauensis
A. amoenus
A. cvjetkovicii
A. jensenii
A. subversicolor
A. creber
A. fructus
A. protuberus
A. austroafricanus
A. sydowii
A. venenatus
A. tennesseensis
A. tabacinus
A. hongkongensis
A. griseoaurantiacus
A. pepii
The “to do” list…
Curate and combine databases (strain level):
Phenotypic data: physiology and chemistry
Material growth data
Molecular data
Internationally accessible cultures
Standardizing sampling/detection methods
Research collaborations with building inspectors
Develop research infrastructure across disciplines
‘…do you want to help filling the gaps?...’
‘Old’ broad taxon concepts
that have been updated
Today
References
The genus Acremonium
7 old genera
Summerbell et al. (2011)
Stud. Mycol. 68: 139
The genus Chaetomium
5 new genera
Wang et al . (2016)
Stud. Mycol. 84: 145
Cladosporium sphaerospermum
23 new species
Bensch et al. (2018)
Stud. Mycol. 89: 177
The genus Eurotium
now Aspergillus
Houbraken et al. (2014)
Adv. Appl. Microb. 86: 199
The genus Neosartorya
Penicillium chrysogenum
5 new species
Houbraken et al. (2012)
Persoonia 29: 78
The genus Ulocladium
now Alternaria
Woudenberg et al. (2015)
Stud. Mycol. 82: 1
Wallemia sebi
4 new species
Jančič et al. (2015)
PloS One 10: e