We all take many breaths every day – so the science of what actually goes into our lungs is extremely important. Air may contain two to three times more fungal spore fragments than previously thought, new research suggests.
Fungal cell nanoparticles may not only contribute to the development of asthma and allergic reactions, but also play an important role in the formation of clouds – especially clouds of ice crystals, which are known to form around similar particles.
“These fragments are most likely pieces of fungal spores that break apart after being saturated with water,” says chemist Michael Lawler of the University of California, Irvine (UCI). 'It was unexpected to identify them as fungal fragments.
“The large numbers of atmospheric nanoparticles are usually attributed to the reactions of gases in the atmosphere that grow from molecules rather than being broken down from larger particles.”
At their selection site in Oklahoma, the team used a device that collected the surrounding particles with a diameter of 20-60 nm and then placed them on a thin platinum filament. After the evaporation process, a high resolution mass spectrometer was used to analyze the resulting gases.
Fragments of fungal cells are about 30 nanometers in size – incredibly small considering that the sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. The researchers believe that previous studies may have missed these snippets because they did not work on a small enough scale.
Intact cells flying through the atmosphere can be thousands of nanometers in size, which means that the biological 'shrapnel' from these fungal spores can penetrate much deeper into the lungs. This is a potential problem for asthmatics and allergy sufferers, and may help explain why rainfall affects asthma attacks in some patients.
Based on previous research, these nanoparticles are likely excellent candidates for ice cores – capable of turning into ice crystals in the atmosphere and contributing to the creation of clouds, a critical factor in short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate predictions.
“Large, intact biological cells are extremely rare in the atmosphere, but we have identified fungal nanoparticles at higher orders of magnitude, so if some or all of them are good ice cores, they may play a role in the formation of ice clouds,” Lawler says.
It is worth noting that the sampled air was taken from one location in northern Oklahoma during a month in 2016 – this is a picture of the composition of the air that will not necessarily be everywhere.
The next step is to further analyze the relationship between these parts of cells and cloud formation, which should lead to more accurate climate modeling, as well as a better understanding of how the air we breathe can change with climate.
The study was published in the journal Science Advances.
Sources: Photo: (Abdiel Ibarra / Unsplash)
