Department of Chemical and Biological Work Environment, National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway
Department of Chemical and Biological Work Environment, National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Oct 16;85(21). doi: 10.1128/AEM.01448-19. Print 2019 Nov 1.
Exposure to fungal spores has been associated with respiratory symptoms and allergic alveolitis among sawmill workers, but the complexity of sawmill workers' fungal exposure has been poorly studied. We characterized the fungal diversity in air samples from sawmill workers' breathing zones and identified differences in the richness, diversity, and taxonomic composition between companies, departments, wood types, and seasons. Full-shift personal inhalable dust samples ( = 86) collected from 11 industrial sawmill, sorting mill, and planer mill companies processing spruce and/or pine were subjected to DNA metabarcoding using the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region 2. The workers were exposed to a higher total number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in summer than in winter and when processing spruce than when processing pine. Workers in the saw department had the richest fungal exposure, followed by workers in the planing department and sorting of dry timber department. Sawmills explained 11% of the variation in the fungal community composition of the exposure, followed by season (5%) and department (3%). The fungal compositions of the exposures also differed between seasons, sawmills, wood types, and departments at the taxonomic level, ranging from the phylum to the species level. The differences in exposure diversity suggest that the potential health effects of fungal inhalation may also be different; hence, a risk assessment based on the fungal diversity differences should be performed. This study may serve as a basis for establishing a fungal profile of signature species that are specific for sawmills and that can be measured quantitatively in future risk assessments of sawmill workers. To gain more knowledge about exposure-response relationships, it is important to improve exposure characterization by comprehensively identifying the temporal and spatial fungal composition and diversity of inhalable dust at workplaces. The variation in the diverse fungal communities to which individuals are exposed in different seasons and sawmills suggests that variations in exposure-related health effects between seasons and companies can be expected. More importantly, the distinct fungal profiles between departments across companies indicate that workers in different job groups are differently exposed and that health risks can be department specific. DNA metabarcoding provides insight into a broad spectrum of airborne fungi that may serve as a basis for obtaining important knowledge about the fungi to which workers are exposed.
工人在锯木厂工作时，会接触到真菌孢子，这可能导致他们出现呼吸道症状和过敏性肺泡炎，但锯木厂工人真菌暴露的复杂性还没有得到充分研究。我们对锯木厂工人呼吸区域的空气样本中的真菌多样性进行了描述，并确定了公司、部门、木材类型和季节之间在丰富度、多样性和分类组成上的差异。我们从 11 家加工云杉和/或松树的工业锯木厂、分拣厂和刨木厂收集了全班次个人可吸入粉尘样本（ = 86），并用真菌内转录间隔区（ITS）2 对其进行 DNA 代谢组学分析。与冬季和加工松树时相比，工人在夏季接触到的操作分类单元（OTUs）总数更高。锯木部门的工人真菌暴露最丰富，其次是刨木部门和干木材分拣部门。锯木厂对暴露真菌群落组成的解释占 11%，其次是季节（5%）和部门（3%）。真菌暴露的组成在分类学水平上，从门到种，也因季节、锯木厂、木材类型和部门而异。暴露多样性的差异表明，真菌吸入的潜在健康影响也可能不同；因此，应该根据真菌多样性的差异进行风险评估。本研究可以作为建立针对锯木厂的特征种真菌图谱的基础，这些特征种可以在未来对锯木厂工人的风险评估中进行定量测量。为了获得更多关于暴露-反应关系的知识，重要的是要通过全面识别工作场所可吸入粉尘的时间和空间真菌组成和多样性来改善暴露特征。个体在不同季节和锯木厂接触到的多样化真菌群落的变化表明，不同季节和公司之间的暴露相关健康影响可能存在差异。更重要的是，不同公司之间不同部门之间的明显真菌分布表明，不同工作群体的工人受到不同程度的暴露，健康风险可能因部门而异。DNA 代谢组学提供了对空气传播真菌的广泛了解，可以作为获得有关工人接触真菌的重要知识的基础。
