{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T16:04:15Z","timestamp":1773158655678,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,5]],"date-time":"2023-03-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1677974400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Aberdeen","award":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"]}]},{"name":"QUADRAT NERC Doctoral Training Partnership","award":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"]}]},{"name":"MCIN\/AEI\/10.13039\/501100011033","award":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2019-104205GB-C21"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Earth\u2019s atmosphere plays a critical role in transporting and dispersing biological aerosols. Nevertheless, the amount of microbial biomass in suspension in the air is so low that it is extremely difficult to monitor the changes over time in these communities. Real-time genomic studies can provide a sensitive and rapid method for monitoring changes in the composition of bioaerosols. However, the low abundance of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) and proteins in the atmosphere, which is of the order of the contamination produced by operators and instruments, poses a challenge for the sampling process and the analyte extraction. In this study, we designed an optimized, portable, closed bioaerosol sampler based on membrane filters using commercial off-the-shelf components, demonstrating its end-to-end operation. This sampler can operate autonomously outdoors for a prolonged time, capturing ambient bioaerosols and avoiding user contamination. We first performed a comparative analysis in a controlled environment to select the optimal active membrane filter based on its ability to capture and extract DNA. We have designed a bioaerosol chamber for this purpose and tested three commercial DNA extraction kits. The bioaerosol sampler was tested outdoors in a representative environment and run for 24 h at 150 L\/min. Our methodology suggests that a 0.22-\u00b5m polyether sulfone (PES) membrane filter can recover up to 4 ng of DNA in this period, sufficient for genomic applications. This system, along with the robust extraction protocol, can be automated for continuous environmental monitoring to gain insights into the time evolution of microbial communities within the air.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23052836","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]],"date-time":"2023-03-06T02:28:34Z","timestamp":1678069714000},"page":"2836","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["An Optimized Active Sampling Procedure for Aerobiological DNA Studies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Jyothi","family":"Basapathi Raghavendra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Planetary Sciences, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thasshwin","family":"Mathanlal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Planetary Sciences, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4492-9650","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria-Paz","family":"Zorzano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Astrobiolog\u00eda (CSIC-INTA), Torrejon de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Javier","family":"Martin-Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Planetary Sciences, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK"},{"name":"Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC-UGR), 18100 Granada, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Douwes, J., Eduard, W., and Thorne, P.S. 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