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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2007, p. 271-277, Vol. 73, No. 1
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02220-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Synthetic Consolidants Attacked by Melanin-Producing Fungi: Case Study of the Biodeterioration of Milan (Italy) Cathedral Marble Treated with Acrylics{triangledown}

Francesca Cappitelli,1* Joshua D. Nosanchuk,2 Arturo Casadevall,2 Lucia Toniolo,3 Lorenzo Brusetti,1 Sofia Florio,4 Pamela Principi,1 Sara Borin,1 and Claudia Sorlini1

Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari e Microbiologiche, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy,1 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Golding 701, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York 10461,2 Dipartimento di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica Giulio Natta Politecnico di Milano, Via Mancinelli 7, 20133 Milan, Italy,3 Dipartimento di Ecologia del Territorio e degli Ambienti Terrestri, University of Pavia, via S. Epifanio 14, 27100 Pavia, Italy4

Received 21 September 2006/ Accepted 20 October 2006

Monuments and artistic stone surfaces are often consolidated and protected with synthetic polymers, in particular, acrylics. Although it is generally thought that acrylic polymers are resistant to biodeterioration, we report for the first time the systematic occurrence of dematiaceous meristematic fungi on many marble samples of the cathedral in Milan (Italy) previously treated with this material. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy applied to the Milan cathedral stone samples revealed characteristic features of biodeteriorated synthetic resins that differentiated them from the aged but nonbiodeteriorated samples. Samples showing biological colonization were analyzed for the presence of fungi. Cultivation and morphological characterization and methods independent from cultivation, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis coupled with partial 18S rRNA gene sequencing and immunofluorescence staining with melanin-binding antibodies, showed that melanin-producing species are heavily present on stone surfaces protected with acrylic resins. This observation raises the question of the effectiveness of acrylics in protecting stone artworks.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari e Microbiologiche, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, Italy. Phone: 39-0250316721. Fax: 39-0250316694. E-mail: francesca.cappitelli{at}unimi.it.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 27 October 2006.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2007, p. 271-277, Vol. 73, No. 1
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02220-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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