Quo vadis? Microbial profiling revealed strong effects of cleanroom maintenance and routes of contamination in indoor environments

Moissl-Eichinger, Christine; Auerbach, Anna K.; Probst, Alexander J.; Mahnert, Alexander; Tom, Lauren; Piceno, Yvette; Andersen, Gary L.; Venkateswaran, Kasthuri; Rettberg, Petra; Barczyk, Simon; Pukall, Rüdiger; Berg, Gabriele

doi:10.1038/srep09156

Quo vadis? Microbial profiling revealed strong effects of cleanroom maintenance and routes of contamination in indoor environments

Journal Article · Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09156· OSTI ID:1215418

Moissl-Eichinger, Christine ^[1]; Auerbach, Anna K. ^[2]; Probst, Alexander J. ^[2]; Mahnert, Alexander ^[3]; Tom, Lauren ^[4]; Piceno, Yvette ^[4]; Andersen, Gary L. ^[4]; Venkateswaran, Kasthuri ^[5]; Rettberg, Petra ^[6]; Barczyk, Simon ^[6]; Pukall, Rüdiger ^[7]; Berg, Gabriele ^[3]

Univ. of Regensburg, Regensburg (Germany); Medical Univ. Graz, Graz (Austria); BioTechMed Graz, Graz (Austria)
Univ. of Regensburg, Regensburg (Germany)
Graz Univ. of Technology, Graz (Austria)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (United States)
Institute of Aerospace Medicine and Radiation Biology, Koln (Germany)
Leibniz Institute DSMZ - Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Braunschweig (Germany)

Space agencies maintain highly controlled cleanrooms to ensure the demands of planetary protection. To study potential effects of microbiome control, we analyzed microbial communities in two particulate-controlled cleanrooms (ISO 5 and ISO 8) and two vicinal uncontrolled areas (office, changing room) by cultivation and 16S rRNA gene amplicon analysis (cloning, pyrotagsequencing, and PhyloChip G3 analysis). Maintenance procedures affected the microbiome on total abundance and microbial community structure concerning richness, diversity and relative abundance of certain taxa. Cleanroom areas were found to be mainly predominated by potentially human-associated bacteria; archaeal signatures were detected in every area. Results indicate that microorganisms were mainly spread from the changing room (68%) into the cleanrooms, potentially carried along with human activity. The numbers of colony forming units were reduced by up to ~400 fold from the uncontrolled areas towards the ISO 5 cleanroom, accompanied with a reduction of the living portion of microorganisms from 45% (changing area) to 1% of total 16S rRNA gene signatures as revealed via propidium monoazide treatment of the samples. Our results demonstrate the strong effects of cleanroom maintenance on microbial communities in indoor environments and can be used to improve the design and operation of biologically controlled cleanrooms.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1215418

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 5; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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