Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3102, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 3;107(31):13748-53. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000454107. Epub 2010 Jun 28.
Fungi are ubiquitous components of indoor human environments, where most contact between humans and microbes occurs. The majority of these organisms apparently play a neutral role, but some are detrimental to human lifestyles and health. Recent studies that used culture-independent sampling methods demonstrated a high diversity of indoor fungi distinct from that of outdoor environments. Others have shown temporal fluctuations of fungal assemblages in human environments and modest correlations with human activity, but global-scale patterns have not been examined, despite the manifest significance of biogeography in other microbial systems. Here we present a global survey of fungi from indoor environments (n = 72), using both taxonomic and phylogeny-informative molecular markers to determine whether global or local indoor factors determine indoor fungal composition. Contrary to common ecological patterns, we show that fungal diversity is significantly higher in temperate zones than in the tropics, with distance from the equator being the best predictor of phylogenetic community similarity. Fungal composition is significantly auto-correlated at the national and hemispheric spatial scales. Remarkably, building function has no significant effect on indoor fungal composition, despite stark contrasts between architecture and materials of some buildings in close proximity. Distribution of individual taxa is significantly range- and latitude-limited compared with a null model of randomized distribution. Our results suggest that factors driving fungal composition are primarily global rather than mediated by building design or function.
真菌是室内人类环境中无处不在的组成部分，人类与微生物的大多数接触都发生在这里。这些生物中的大多数显然起着中性的作用，但有些对人类的生活方式和健康有害。最近使用非培养采样方法的研究表明，室内真菌的多样性与室外环境明显不同。其他研究还表明，人类环境中的真菌组合存在时间波动，与人类活动有适度的相关性，但尚未研究全球尺度的模式，尽管生物地理学在其他微生物系统中具有明显的意义。在这里，我们使用分类和系统发育信息分子标记对来自室内环境的真菌进行了全球调查（n = 72），以确定全球或局部室内因素是否决定室内真菌组成。与常见的生态模式相反，我们表明，真菌多样性在温带地区明显高于热带地区，距离赤道越远，系统发育群落相似性的最佳预测因子。真菌组成在国家和半球空间尺度上呈显著自相关。值得注意的是，尽管一些建筑物在建筑和材料上存在明显差异，但建筑物的功能对室内真菌组成没有显著影响。与随机分布的零模型相比，个别分类群的分布明显受到范围和纬度的限制。我们的研究结果表明，驱动真菌组成的因素主要是全球性的，而不是由建筑设计或功能介导的。
