Airborne bacteria associated with particulate matter from a highly urbanised metropolis: A potential risk to the population’s health

Highlights

• The airborne bacteria of Mexico City are representative of urban environments.

• Particle material<10 µm influenced the type and quantity of airborne bacteria.

• The diversity and richness of bacteria were higher in the rainy season.

• The emission & transport of airborne bacteria determine the atmosphere’s microbiome.

• Bacterias as Kocuria, Paracoccus, and Staphylococcus were in the air of Mexico City.

Abstract

Bacteria in the air present patterns in space and time produced by different sources and environmental factors. Few studies have focused on the link between airborne pathogenic bacteria in densely populated cities, and the risk to the population’s health. Bacteria associated with particulate matter (PM) were monitored from the air of Mexico City (Mexico). We employed a metagenomic approach to characterise bacteria using the 16S rRNA gene. Airborne bacteria sampling was carried out in the north, centre, and south of Mexico City, with different urbanisation rates, during 2017. Bacteria added to the particles were sampled using high-volume PM₁₀ samplers. To ascertain significant differences in bacterial diversity between zones and seasons, the Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon tests were done on alpha diversity parameters. Sixty-three air samples were collected, and DNA was sequenced using next-generation sequencing. The results indicated that the bacterial phyla in the north and south of the city were Firmicutes, Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, while in the central zone there were more Actinobacteria. There were no differences in the alpha diversity indices between the sampled areas. According to the OTUs, the richness of bacteria was higher in the central zone. Alpha diversity was higher in the rainy season than in the dry season; the Shannon index and the OTUs observed were higher in the central zone in the dry season. Pathogenic bacteria such as Kocuria, Paracoccus, and Micrococcus predominated in both seasonal times, while Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Nocardioides were found during the rainy season, with a presence in the central zone.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Airborne bacteria / Urbanisation / PM₁₀ / Mexico City / Microbiome

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Acknowledgements

We thank César Guerrero Guerra and Ana Rosa Flores Márquez for their valuable technical assistance and Miguel Angel Meneses and Manuel Garcia Espinosa for their technical support in the field, all of them from the Centre of Atmospheric Sciences of UNAM (Mexico). This work was funded by the “Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología e Innovación de la Ciudad de México” (Mexico) (SECITI/050/2016; SECITI/057/2017), and Brunner-Mendoza C. received a postdoctoral scholarship from the “Dirección General de Asuntos de Personal Académico” (Mexico) (DGAPA, UNAM).

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