Abstract
The airborne mycobiota has been understudied in comparison with the mycobiota present in other agricultural environments. Traditional, culture-based methods allow the study of a small fraction of the organisms present in the atmosphere, thus missing important information. In this study, the aerial mycobiota in a rice paddy has been examined during the cropping season (from June to September 2016) using qPCRs for two important rice pathogens (Pyricularia oryzae and Bipolaris oryzae) and by using DNA metabarcoding of the fungal ITS region. The metabarcoding results demonstrated a higher alpha diversity (Shannon–Wiener diversity index H′ and total number of observed species) at the beginning of the trial (June), suggesting a higher level of community complexity, compared with the end of the season. The main taxa identified by HTS analysis showed a shift in their relative abundance that drove the cluster separation as a function of time and temperature. The most abundant OTUs corresponded to genera such as Cladosporium, Alternaria, Myrothecium, or Pyricularia. Changes in the mycobiota composition were clearly dependent on the average air temperature with a potential impact on disease development in rice. In parallel, oligotyping analysis was performed to obtain a sub-OTU identification which revealed the presence of several oligotypes of Pyricularia and Bipolaris with relative abundance changing during monitoring.
Highlights
Airborne microbes are strong contributors to the global ecosystem
This study focused on the cropping season of rice, as a model, to evaluate the potential of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies and oligotyping to study the airborne mycobiota
Temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and growth stage of the plant affect the composition of the dominant mycobiota at genus level and have a strong effect at the sub-genus level
Summary
Airborne microbes are strong contributors to the global ecosystem. Despite the high concentrations of these microbes in the atmosphere [1,2,3], this microbiota has been understudied in comparison with those present in other environments, such as soil or rhizosphere [4]. Airborne organisms play a key role in atmospheric processes, such as aerosol particles for cloud formation, ice nucleation, rainfall cycles [5,6,7], and within the biogeochemical cycles of the earth [8]. Different studies regarding the aerial microbiota in suburban and city regions [11,12,13], as well as in indoor spaces [14], have been performed in order to monitor important organisms that.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
