Fungal Signature of Moisture Damage in Buildings: Identification by Targeted and Untargeted Approaches with Mycobiome Data

Abstract

Living or working in damp or moldy buildings increases the risk of many adverse health effects, including asthma and other respiratory diseases. To date, however, the particular environmental exposure(s) from water-damaged buildings that causes the health effects have not been identified. Likewise, a consistent quantitative measurement that would indicate whether a building is water damaged or poses a health risk to occupants has not been found. In this work, we tried to develop analytical tools that would find a microbial signal of moisture damage amid the noisy background of microorganisms in buildings. The most successful approach taken here focused on particular groups of fungi—those considered likely to grow in damp indoor environments—and their associations with observed moisture damage. With further replication and refinement, this hypothesis-based strategy may be effective in finding still-elusive relationships between building damage and microbiomes.