School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Building Sustainability Group, Arup, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2021 Jan 5;55(1):249-259. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c06201. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
Metabolically active bacteria within built environments are poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the active airborne bacterial microbiota and compare the total and active microbiota in eight mechanically ventilated buildings over four consecutive seasons using the 16S rRNA gene (rDNA) and the 16S rRNA (rRNA), respectively. The relative abundances of the taxa of presumptive occupants and environmental origins were significantly different between the active and total microbiota. The Sloan neutral model suggested that ecological drift and random dispersal played a smaller role in the assembly of the active microbiota than the total microbiota. The seasonal nature of the active microbiota was consistent with that of the total microbiota in both indoor and outdoor environments, while only the indoor environment was significantly affected by geography. The relative abundances of the active and total taxa were positively correlated, suggesting that the high-abundance members were also the greatest contributors to the community-level metabolic activity. Based on the rRNA/rDNA ratio, the low-abundance members consistently had a higher taxon-level metabolic activity than the high-abundance members over seasons, suggesting that the low-abundance members may have the ability to survive and thrive in the indoor environment and their impact on the health of occupants cannot be overlooked.
建筑环境中具有代谢活性的细菌尚未被充分了解。本研究旨在分别使用 16S rRNA 基因（rDNA）和 16S rRNA（rRNA），调查八个机械通风建筑中活跃的空气细菌微生物群，并比较四个连续季节的总细菌微生物群和活跃细菌微生物群。假定居住者和环境来源的分类群的相对丰度在活跃和总微生物群之间存在显著差异。Sloan 中性模型表明，生态漂移和随机扩散在活跃微生物群的组装中比总微生物群的作用更小。活跃微生物群的季节性与室内和室外环境中总微生物群的季节性一致，而只有室内环境受到地理位置的显著影响。活跃和总分类群的相对丰度呈正相关，这表明高丰度成员也是群落水平代谢活性的最大贡献者。根据 rRNA/rDNA 比值，低丰度成员在整个季节中的分类群代谢活性始终高于高丰度成员，这表明低丰度成员可能有能力在室内环境中生存和繁殖，其对居住者健康的影响不容忽视。
