Fungal biodiversity - as found in nasal mucus

The biodiversity of fungi isolated from the nasal mucus of patients suffering from chronic rhinosinusitis and from healthy persons was monitored over 28 months. Mucus samples were obtained by flushing the noses of patients with saline or by endoscopic sinus surgery. Fungi from mucus were cultivated on agar plates. Identification was performed microscopically and by polymerase chain reaction with subsequent sequencing of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region. Altogether, 619 strains of fungi were cultivated from 233 subjects. Eighty- one species were identified, with a maximum of nine different species per person. The most prevalent isolates belonged to the genera Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Alternaria and Aureobasidium. Whereas Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. occurred in more or less the same numbers throughout the year, Cladosporium spp., Alternaria spp. and Aureobasidium pullulans showed a significantly higher occurrence during late summer and early autumn.