2020 Volume 69 Issue 12 Pages 741-746
Fine particulate matter sized 2.5 μm or less, referred to as PM2.5, causes serious air pollution in urban cities and is responsible for several health problems, such as respiratory disease and asthma in urban populations. Although seasonal Asian dust, called Kosa (∼ 5 μm), has been extensively studied for over decades, and has been shown to be an allergen in Japan, the influence of PM2.5 on human health has remained unclear due to the intrinsic chemical and biological complexity of isolating variables for study. In this study, PM2.5 was collected at Ito Campus in Kyushu University, Fukuoka, located in extreme western Japan and its physical and biological characteristics were analyzed. The presence of bacteria, Firmicutes genus Bacillus, Lysinibacillus, Paenibacillus, Gracilibacillus, and Solibacillus in the collected PM2.5 sample was confirmed by culturing and conducting DNA sequencing of their 16S rRNA gene.
