Fungal Presence in Archival Settings: Assessment using classic culturing and molecular biology methods

The presence of fungal cells or fungal spores in archives carries potential negative effects not only for the staff, but also for the documents and books in the collection. In order to evaluate these locations, air samples and surface samples (from the floor, ceiling, archival boxes and documents) were taken from a Portuguese archive located in Lisbon. These samples were inoculated on culture media after collection. When the surface sampled was a document, an extra swabbing was done for molecular biology analysis. After incubation, colony counting and identification was performed. Molecular biology techniques (D2 LSU genomic region amplification and denaturant high performance liquid chromatography) were applied to the document samples. Air quality assessment, together with the molecular biology protocol, provided the identification of otherwise unculturable fungi, such as Eurotium halophilicum, and allowed the identification of Stachybotrys chartarum, a potentially toxinogenic and pathogenic fungus, and Chrysosporium carmichaelli, a keratinophilic species.