Building associated microbiome

Exposure to particular microbiome compositions in the built environment can affect human health and wellbeing. Identifying the drivers of these indoor microbial assemblages is key to controlling the microbiota of the built environment. In the present study, we used culture and metabarcoding of the fungal Internal Transcribed Spacer ribosomal RNA region to assess whether small-scale variation in the built environment influences the diversity, composition and structure of indoor air fungal communities between a heating and an unheated season. Passive dust collectors were used to collect airborne fungi from 259 dwellings representative of three major building periods and five building environments in one city, Lausanne (Vaud, Switzerland), over a heating and an unheated period. A homogenous population (one or two people with an average age of 75 years) inhabited the households. Geographic information systems were used to assess detailed site characteristics (altitude, proximity to forest, fields and parks, proximity to the lake, and density of buildings and roads) for each building.