Diversity and Source of Airborne Microbial Communities at Differential Polluted Sites of Rome

Biogenic fraction of airborne PM10 which includes bacteria, viruses, fungi and pollens, has been proposed as one the potential causes toxicity. The present study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding microbial community variations associated PM10, their main local sources in surrounding environment three urban sites Rome, characterized by differential pollution rate: green area, residential area polluted close traffic roads. We combined high-throughput amplicon sequencing bacterial 16S rRNA gene fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, with detailed chemical analysis particulate matter sampled from air, paved road surfaces leaf Quercus ilex. Our results demonstrated that communities were highest alpha-diversity grouped separately epiphytic dust communities. reconstruction source-sink relationships revealed resuspension/deposition might contribute maximum magnitude exchanges. relative abundance extremotolerant microbes was found be enhanced progressively increase levels well opportunistic human pathogenicity