How relevant are house dust mite-fungal interactions in laboratory culture to the natural dust system?

Abstract

Both house dust and house dust mites Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus contained a wider range of fungi than laboratory mite cultures. In total, nine species of fungi were isolated from D. pteronyssinus in house dust, and these included three xerophilic species (Eurotium amstelodami, Aspergillus penicillioides and Wallemia sebi) commonly found in laboratory cultures of D. pteronyssinus. It is concluded that mites do interact with a similar range of fungi in natural dust and in laboratory culture, but that the diversity of fungal species in the laboratory is reduced and the density of individual fungal species in culture exceeds that of house dust. In a second experiment, dust samples were incubated at room temperature with 75% relative humidity. The diversity of fungi invariably declined from up to 13 genera to the few species recorded in laboratory culture. This suggests that the dominance of xerophilic fungi in laboratory mite rearings is mediated primarily by low relative humidity, and the exclusion of air-borne spores.