Affiliation:
1. Aerosol Research and Exposure Assessment Laboratory, Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45267-0056,1 and
2. Health Research Services Division, DynCorp, Durham, North Carolina 277032
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Airborne actinomycete spores, important contaminants in occupational and residential environments, were studied with respect to their (i) release into the air, (ii) aerodynamic and physical size while airborne, and (iii) survival after collection onto agar with an impactor. Three actinomycete species were selected for the tests to exemplify the three main spore types:
Streptomyces albus
for arthrospores,
Micromonospora halophytica
for aleuriospores, and
Thermoactinomyces vulgaris
for endospores. The results show that the incubation conditions (temperature, time, and nutrients) needed for the development of spores for their release into air are different from the conditions that are needed for colony growth only. Additional drying of
M. halophytica
and
T. vulgaris
cultures was needed before spores could be released from the culture. The aerodynamic sizes of the spores, measured with an aerodynamic particle sizer, ranged from 0.57 (
T. vulgaris
) to 1.28 μm (
M. halophytica
). The physical sizes of the spores, when measured with a microscope and an image analysis system, were found to be smaller than previously reported in the literature. The relative recovery of the spores on agar media ranged from 0.5 (
T. vulgaris
) to 35% (
S. albus
). The results indicate that the culturability of the collected airborne actinomycete spores varies widely and is affected by several variables, such as the species and the sampling flow rate. Therefore, alternatives to commonly used cultivation methods need to be developed for the enumeration of actinomycete spores.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
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