Size resolved characteristics of urban and suburban bacterial bioaerosols in Japan as assessed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing

To study the size-resolved characteristics of airborne bacterial community composition, diversity, and abundance, outdoor aerosol samples were analysed by 16S rRNA gene-targeted quantitative PCR and amplicon sequencing with Illumina MiSeq. The samples were collected using size-resolved samplers between August and October 2016, at a suburban site in Toyama City and an urban site in Yokohama City, Japan. The bacterial communities were found to be dominated by Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. At the genus level, we found a high abundance of human skin-associated bacteria, such as Propionibacterium, Staphylococcus, and Corynebacterium, in the urban site. Whereas, a high abundance of bacteria associated with soil and plants, such as Methylobacterium and Sphingomonas, was observed in the suburban site. Furthermore, our data revealed a shift in the bacterial community structure, diversity, and abundance of total bacteria at a threshold of 1.1-µm diameter. Interestingly, we observed that Legionella spp., the causal agents of legionellosis in humans, were mainly detected in > 2.1 µm coarse particles. Our data indicate that local environmental factors including built environments could influence the outdoor airborne bacterial community at each site. These results provide a basis for understanding the size-resolved properties of bacterial community composition, diversity, and abundance in outdoor aerosol samples and their potential influence on human health.