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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2004, p. 1360-1365, Vol. 70, No. 3
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.3.1360-1365.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Development and Use of Flow Cytometry for Detection of Airborne Fungi

Valeria Prigione,1 Guido Lingua,2 and Valeria Filipello Marchisio1*

Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Torino, I-10125 Turin,1 Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Avanzate, Università del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro, I-15100 Alessandria, Italy2

Received 11 July 2003/ Accepted 20 November 2003

Traditional methods for the enumeration of airborne fungi are slow, tedious, and rather imprecise. In this study, the possibility of using flow cytometry (FCM) for the assessment of exposure to the fungus aerosol was evaluated. Epifluorescence microscopy direct counting was adopted as the standard for comparison. Setting up of the method was achieved with pure suspensions of Aspergillus fumigatus and Penicillium brevicompactum conidia at different concentrations, and then analyses were extended to field samples collected by an impinger device. Detection and quantification of airborne fungi by FCM was obtained combining light scatter and propidium iodide red fluorescence parameters. Since inorganic debris are unstainable with propidium iodide, the biotic component could be recognized, whereas the preanalysis of pure conidia suspensions of some species allowed us to select the area corresponding to the expected fungal population. A close agreement between FCM and epifluorescence microscopy counts was found. Moreover, data processing showed that FCM can be considered more precise and reliable at any of the tested concentrations.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Viale Mattioli 25, I-10125 Turin, Italy. Phone: 39-11-6705984. Fax: 39-11-6705962. E-mail: valeria.filipello{at}unito.it.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2004, p. 1360-1365, Vol. 70, No. 3
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.3.1360-1365.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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Copyright © 2004 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.