Monitoring of airborne biological particles in outdoor atmosphere. Part 2: Metagenomics applied to urban environments Authors Andrés Núñez Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain Guillermo Amo de Paz Department of Plant Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Alberto Rastrojo Center of Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM, Madrid, Spain Ana M. García Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Antonio Alcamí Center of Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM, Madrid, Spain A. Montserrat Gutiérrez-Bustillo Department of Plant Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Diego A. Moreno Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Keywords: airborne biological particles, metagenomics, next-generation sequencing (NGS), air biomonitoring, urban aerobiology Abstract The air we breathe contains microscopic biological particles such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and pollen, some of them with relevant clinic importance. These organisms and/or their propagules have been traditionally studied by different disciplines and diverse methodologies like culture and microscopy. These techniques require time, expertise and also have some important biases. As a consequence, our knowledge on the total diversity and the relationships between the different biological entities present in the air is far from being complete. Currently, metagenomics and next-generation sequencing (NGS) may resolve this shortage of information and have been recently applied to metropolitan areas. Although the procedures and methods are not totally standardized yet, the first studies from urban air samples confirm the previous results obtained by culture and microscopy regarding abundance and variation of these biological particles. However, DNA-sequence analyses call into question some preceding ideas and also provide new interesting insights into diversity and their spatial distribution inside the cities. Here, we review the procedures, results and perspectives of the recent works that apply NGS to study the main biological particles present in the air of urban environments. [Int Microbiol 19(2): 69-80 (2016)]Keywords: airborne biological particles · metagenomics · next-generation sequencing (NGS) · air biomonitoring · urban aerobiology Downloads PDF Issue Vol. 19 No. 2 (2016) Section Research Reviews License Submission of a manuscript to International Microbiology implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication in the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all the coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsability for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all coauthors regarding the editorial review and publication process.If an article is accepted for publication in International Microbiology, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the right–not exclusive–to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all article in International Microbiology will be available on the Internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner's consent does not include copying for new works, or resale. In these cases, the specific written permission of International Microbiology must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The original publication is available on LINK at <http://www.im.microbios.org>. Please use the appropiate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia.
