NI: BioSkyNet: the first global network of bioaerosols researchers

我们呼吸的空气与微生物在一起，气流将微生物输送到全球。最早描述空气中微生物分布的努力是由微生物学创始人路易斯·巴斯德在125年前进行的；但自那以后，空气中的微生物在很大程度上被忽视了。其中一个原因是，在收集空气中的微生物方面存在重大的技术挑战，因此微生物生态学家将重点放在土壤和水中微生物这一低垂的果实上。即使已经做出努力研究空气中的微生物，研究也主要集中在地方/国家层面，但空气污染并不尊重国家边界。因此，我们组建了一个由世界领先的生物气溶胶生物监测专家组成的新网络，以全球视角研究空气中微生物对生态、人类和环境健康的影响。总体而言，空气中的微生物被称为生物气溶胶，它只是来自生物来源的空气颗粒的一部分。暴露在糟糕的空气质量中是全球健康状况不佳的主要原因，每8人中就有1人死亡。花粉可能是生物气溶胶最著名的例子，作为一种异物，它对公众健康有直接影响。然而，空气中的活细菌、真菌和病毒通过军团菌病和曲霉病等传染性呼吸道疾病构成重大的健康风险。负面的公共健康风险本身就使得对生物气溶胶的研究变得值得。然而，生物气溶胶在微生物的生命周期、全球生态和气候模式中也发挥着核心作用。对地貌尺度上的生物气溶胶的分析表明，即使是海洋和陆地环境也通过生物气溶胶的交换在遥远的距离上连接在一起。事实上，众所周知，生物气溶胶可以通过天空中的“微生物高速公路”(例如撒哈拉尘埃)在各大洲之间运输。此外，生物气溶胶通过作为成核形成粒子和促进降水来影响气候。由于涉及的距离很远，不可能从地方或国家一级进行的研究中全面了解情况，相反，需要从全球的角度来研究这些进程。微生物生态学最近的一项主要方法学进步是“下一代测序”技术的应用。从环境中提取DNA并进行高通量测序分析，是彻底改变我们对土壤和水环境中微生物生态学的理解的关键工具。由于空气样品中微生物的浓度较低，这对生物气溶胶来说是技术上的挑战。因此，分子方法在生物气溶胶研究中未得到充分利用。尽管如此，世界各地的一些研究小组已经开发出生物气溶胶的分子(DNA)分析方法。然而，这些方法之间缺乏标准化，使得比较结果并从组合数据集中得出结论具有挑战性。这个新的网络首次将这些专家聚集在一起，以标准化和进一步改进这些方法。然而，这个网络的一个关键目标是让这些方法更广泛地可用。空气污染的最大负担是在低收入和中等收入国家，那里获得先进分子方法的机会有限。通过该网络，中低收入国家的研究人员可以使用这些工具，在最需要的地方推动研究。

The air we breathe is teaming with microorganisms, with air currents transporting microbes globally. The earliest efforts to describe the distribution of airborne microbes were carried out by the founding father of microbiology, Louis Pasteur, over 125 years ago; but since then airborne microbes have been largely ignored. One reasons for this is that there are significant technical challenges in collecting airborne microorganisms,and thus microbial ecologists have focused on the low hanging fruit of soil and waterborne microorganisms. Even when efforts have been made to study airborne microorganisms, the research has been largely focused at a local/national level, but air pollution does not respect national boarders. Therefore, we have assembled a new network of world-leading experts in bioaerosols biomonitoring to take a global perspective on the ecology and human and environmental health effects of airborne microorganisms.Collectively, airborne microorganisms are referred to as bioaerosols, which is simply the fraction of air particles that are from a biological origin. Exposure to poor air quality is a major global driver of poor health, killing 1 in 8 people. Pollen is probably the best known example of a bioaerosol, which as an allogen, has a direct impact on public health. However, live bacteria, fungi, and viruses in the air pose a significant health risk through infectious respiratory diseases such as Legionellosis and Aspergillosis. The negative public health risks in themselves makes research into bioaerosols worthwhile. However, bioaerosols also play central roles in the life cycles of microorganisms, global ecology, and climate patterns. Analysis of bioaerosols at landscape scales has shown that even marine and terrestrial environments are connected over vast distances by exchange of bioaerosols. Indeed, it is well known that bioaerosols can be transported between continents on 'microbial motorways' in the sky (e.g. Saharan dust). Further to this, bioaerosols influence the climate by acting as nucleation forming particles and promoting precipitation. Due to the vast distances involved it is not possible to get the full picture from studies carried out at a local or national level, instead a global perspective is required to study these processes. A major recent methodological advancement in microbial ecology is the application of 'next generation sequencing' technology. Isolation of DNA from the environment and its analysis with high throughput sequencing has been a key tool in revolutionizing our understanding of the ecology of microbes from soil and water environments. Due to the lower concentrations of microorganisms in air samples this is technically challenging for bioaerosols. Consequently molecular methods are underutilised in bioaerosols research. Nevertheless a number of research groups across the globe have developed methods for molecular (DNA based) analysis of bioaerosols. However, a lack of standardisation between these methods makes it challenging to compare results and draw conclusions from combined datasets. This new network brings these experts together for the first time in order to standardise and further improve these methods. However, a key objective of this network is to make these methods more widely available. The largest burden of air pollution is in lower and middle income countries, where access to advanced molecular methods is limited. Through the network, researchers in lower and middle income countries can access these tools, pushing research forward where the need is greatest.