Abstract
Airborne bacteria are dispersed along with Asian dust and have various influences on atmospheric characteristics, downwind ecosystems, and public health. In this study, aircraft observations were conducted during Asian dust passage and non-dust conditions over the East China Sea in December 2010, and the composition of culturable bacteria within the dust was investigated using culture-based gene analysis. The 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed that the 34 cultured strains isolated from the transported dust could be grouped into Bacillales and Actinomycetales. Highly tolerant endospore-forming bacteria (25 isolates) were predominant in the composition. On the other hand, all non-endospore-forming bacteria (9 isolates) were gram-positive bacteria with high guanine and cytosine contents, which have substantial ultraviolet (UV) resistance. Thus, the isolated culturable bacteria were strains having some tolerance for exposure to UV radiation. Although the atmosphere is an extreme environment for bacterial survival, Asian dust can facilitate atmospheric dispersion of culturable bacteria that are resistant to the harsh ambient air environment.
Highlights
Atmospheric dust derived from desert areas is frequently transported great distances (e.g., Uno et al, 2009)
The purpose of this study is to indicate the composition of culturable bacteria transported in an Asian dust plume over the East China Sea, and to estimate from the results bacterial tolerance associated with their survival during atmospheric transport
The airborne observation on that day was conducted during Asian dust passage over the East China Sea, at altitudes 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 m
Summary
Atmospheric dust derived from desert areas is frequently transported great distances (e.g., Uno et al, 2009). Mineral dust has a beneficial effect on fertilization of downwind ecosystems (Bishop et al, 2002). Some studies have shown that dust particles cause adverse respiratory effects in humans (Kwon et al, 2002; Ichinose et al, 2005). Biological substances in dust can have positive and negative impacts on humans, and these substances increase adverse respiratory effects in comparison with pure minerals (Ichinose et al, 2008; Liu et al, 2014)
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