1. Microbial DNA in Residential Carpet Dust: Assessment of Measurement Efficiency.
- Author
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Bope, Ashleigh, Cochran, Samuel J., Kormos, David, and Dannemiller, Karen C.
- Subjects
- *
ESCHERICHIA coli , *POLYMERASE chain reaction , *ASPERGILLUS fumigatus , *DUST measurement , *SAMPLING (Process) - Abstract
Resuspension of dust from carpet is an important source of human exposure to microorganisms. The microbial composition of dust can be measured using environmental DNA, such as with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies. However, we need an improved understanding of collection losses and efficiencies to support accurate quantification of these exposures. The goal of this study was to characterize accuracy and precision of PCR-based analysis methods for microbial DNA in residential carpet dust. We spiked dust with known concentrations of bacterial cells Escherichia coli and Bacillus atrophaeus, as well as spores of the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. We embedded the dust into nylon carpet of varying pile heights and recovered it by vacuuming using two different attachments. Overall reproducibility using quantitative PCR ranged from 13% to 36% coefficient of variation for this sampling procedure. Overall efficiencies associated with recovery of dust from the carpet via vacuuming and extraction of DNA from the dust ranged from 27% for A. fumigatus spores to 9% for E. coli cells. Failure to account for DNA recovery efficiencies could result in up to 11.2 times underestimation of exposure. Incorporating DNA recovery efficiencies into the analysis avoids underestimation of environmental exposures to microbes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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