Emerging Insights into the Occupational Mycobiome

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Curr Allergy Asthma Rep
• Personal Author:
  Green, Brett J.
• Description:
  Purpose of Review
  
  The evolution of molecular-based methods over the last two decades has provided new approaches to identify and characterize fungal communities or “mycobiomes” at resolutions previously not possible using traditional hazard identification methods. The recent focus on fungal community assemblages within indoor environments has provided renewed insight into overlooked sources of fungal exposure. In occupational studies, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequencing has recently been utilized in a variety of environments ranging from indoor office buildings to agricultural commodity and harvesting operations.
  
  Recent Findings
  
  Fungal communities identified in occupational environments have been primarily placed in the phylum Ascomycota and included classes typically identified using traditional fungal exposure methods such as the Eurotiomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Saccharomycetes. The phylum Basidiomycota has also been reported to be more prevalent than previously estimated and ITS region sequences have been primarily derived from the classes Agaricomycetes and Ustilaginomycetes. These studies have also resolved sequences placed in the Basidiomycota classes Tremellomycetes and Exobasidiomycetes that include environmental and endogenous yeast species.
  
  Summary
  
  These collective datasets have shown that occupational fungal exposures include a much broader diversity of fungi than once thought. Although the clinical implications for occupational allergy are an emerging field of research, establishing the mycobiome in occupational environments will be critical for future studies to determine the complete spectrum of worker exposures to fungal bioaerosols and their impact on worker health.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Air Pollutants Allergy DNA, Intergenic Fungi Humans Mycobiome Occupational Occupational Exposure Sequencing Workplace
• Source:
  Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 18(11):62
• Pubmed ID:
  30259186
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6441957
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  11
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:d3e872a158edabd300754cd1cd62e240455cafc96a80013dc10156a93848b2e5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/77167/cdc_77167_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 404.84 KB ]