
Metabarcoding technology through high-throughput sequencing can characterize the species composition of bulk samples, including even degraded DNA. In the present study, we conducted DNA metabarcoding (the nuclear ITS2 region) for indoor fungal samples originating from a nursery school with a suspected mould problem and from a university building. Good-quality sequences were obtained, and the results showed that DNA metabarcoding gives a high resolution in fungal identification and allows a more complete discovery of taxonomic diversity when compared to culture-dependent methods. The numbers of fungal classes, orders, families, and genera per sample varied greatly, between 11–16, 14–33, 15–46, and 26–76, respectively. Comparable ranges of Shannon’s diversity indices were 0.70–1.74, 0.80–2.46, 0.88–2.89, and 0.78–3.42, respectively. When comparing fungal diversities between the nursery school and the university building, mean diversities were closely similar. Proportions of sequences successfully assigned at class, order, family, genus, and species levels equaled 100.0, 99.7, 99.3, 94.7, and 27.9 %. Thus, the method used is highly effective until the genus level. Although differences were observed in the fungal composition of the studied buildings, it is difficult to draw definite conclusions of the causes of supposedly poor indoor air quality (yet, without medical evidence) in the nursery school.
| citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 14 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
