Fungi and their secondary metabolites in water-damaged indoors after a major flood event in eastern Croatia.

Abstract

In winter and summer of 2016 and 2017, airborne fungi and house dust were collected in indoors of the village Gunja, which had been flooded, and the control village Gornji Stupnik (Croatia) in order to explore variations of fungal indoor levels, particularly Aspergilli section Nidulantes series Versicolores, as well as fungal metabolites in dust. Levels of airborne Aspergilli (Versicolores) were three times as high in winter and summer in Gunja than in the control village, while dustborne isolates were equally present in both locations. Sequencing of the calmodulin gene region revealed that among Aspergilli (Versicolores), A.jensenii and A.creber were dominant and together with A.puulaauensis, A.tennesseensis and A.venenatus produced sterigmatocystin and 5-methoxysterigmatocystin (HPLC coupled with mass spectrometry); A.amoenus, A.fructus, A.griseoaurantiacus, A.pepii, and A.protuberus produced sterigmatocystin but not 5-methoxysterigmatocystin; A.sydowii did not produce any of these toxins. A total of 75 metabolites related to Penicillium (29), Aspergillus (22), Fusarium (10), Alternaria (5), Stachybotrys (2), and other fungi (7) were detected in dust by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The majority of metabolites including sterigmatocystin and 5-methoxysterigmatocystin exhibited a higher prevalence in winter in Gunja.