Journal Article

Metagenomic profiling of airborne microbial communities from aircraft filters and face masks

Jeilu, Oliyad, Sumner, Jack T., Huttenhower, Curtis, Moghadam, Anahid A., Thompson, Kelsey N., Catlett, Charlie, Hartmann, Erica M.

2025

Overview

Background Airborne microbial communities, although often challenging to study due to low biomass, play crucial roles in public health and pathogen transmission. Through shotgun metagenomics, this study utilizes non-invasive air sampling of face masks and aircraft cabin filters to investigate microbial diversity in environments with frequent human interactions, including hospitals and airplanes. A comprehensive sampling and analysis workflow was developed, incorporating environmental and enrichment protocols to enhance microbial DNA recovery and diversity profiling. Results Despite limitations in biomass, optimized extraction methods allowed for the successful identification of 407 species, with dominant taxa including Cutibacterium acnes , Staphylococcus epidermidis , Sphingomonas hankookensis , and Methylobacterium radiotolerans . Enrichment processing resulted in greater metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) recovery and higher antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) identification. Conclusions The findings highlight the presence of ARGs in high-occupancy public spaces, suggesting the importance of monitoring and the potential for mitigating airborne transmission risks in such environments. This study demonstrates the utility of combining environmental and enrichment sampling to capture comprehensive microbial and ARG profiles in confined spaces, providing a framework for enhanced pathogen monitoring in public health contexts. 6abPKkDQuG-Sjfm7YhE_BL Video Abstract

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Acne / Air Filters - microbiology / Air Microbiology / Air sampling / Airborne microbiome / Aircraft / Aircraft cabin filters / Analysis / Antimicrobial resistance / Bacteria - classification / Bacteria - genetics / Bacteria - isolation & purification / Bioinformatics / Biomass / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / DNA fingerprinting / Drug resistance in microorganisms / Efficiency / Enrichment / Face masks / Filters / Flying-machines / Genes / Genomes / Genomics / Hospitals / Humans / Masks / Masks - microbiology / Medical Microbiology / Medical personnel / Metagenome / Metagenomics / Metagenomics - methods / Microbial Ecology / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Microbiology / Microbiomes / Microbiota - genetics / Microorganisms / Pandemics / Pathogen surveillance / Pathogens / Public health / Thermal cycling / Virology