Abstract
Fungi pollution was periodically investigated from February 2007 to September 2009 (five times in total) in an art museum in Shizuoka Prefecture. In this case, by observation of a colony, or observation by optical microscope, some difficult fungi (Aspergillus section Restrictus) to identify were isolated from the surface of the work collected, and from the air in a storehouse. It was thought that these fungi isolated caused contamination and degradation of the art work, and identification by a gene analysis was performed on about ten isolates. The gene analysis was conducted by determining the base sequence of the D1D2 region of the 26SrRNA gene. From the result of identification, the isolates were cultivated using several sorts of culture media for fungi, and comparison of the shape of the colony and comparison of microindentations such as the conidial head with a light microscope were conducted. As a result, the samples were classified into about five strains. One of species was Aspergillus penicillioides known as a cause of the brown spot (foxing) on art work of paper or books. It was suggested that the other strains were related species of A. penicillioides, and a high possibility that it was the offending fungi foxing of the art work of paper and staining of paintings.
