Energy-powered spore-launching strategy is an evolved feature of many fungal species, facilitating dispersal into the surrounding environment, thereby contributing to reproductive success and completing their life cycle. With a focus on the underlying biophysical principles and their broader implications for fungal ecology, this review explores current knowledge of spore discharge biomechanics across different fungal groups. Additionally, it discusses how each step of spore launching relates to fundamental physical principles of energy and motion. Literature was collected through iterative searches in Web of Science and Google Scholar. Additional documents were retrieved through manual searches of key publications’ reference lists and citation tracking. The widely investigated fungal groups regarding spore launching include sporangia squirters (like Pilobolus), ballistospore catapulters (like Agaricus), and ascospore launchers (like Neurospora). Osmotic pressure, surface tension, and cavitation are among the major energy-generating mechanisms responsible for propelling spores at extreme acceleration, thus enabling spores to travel distances of up to several meters. Spore discharge mechanisms can be categorized based on how energy is generated, stored, and transformed into mechanical motion. Thanks to advances in biophysical modeling and high-speed imaging, the century-old mystery of fungal launching strategies has been understood to involve principles of fluid mechanics, optics, and projectile dynamics by investigating many fungal groups.
Puerto Ricans experience among the highest asthma morbidity in the United States, and ambient fungal spores are abundant tropical aeroallergens. This ecological time-series study asked whether associations between ambient fungal spores and recorded asthma healthcare utilization in the San Juan Metropolitan Area, Puerto Rico (2018–2021), were stable across two contextual eras (post-Hurricane María recovery, 2018–2019; the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020–2021) and across age groups. Daily Burkard spore counts were linked to 168,578 asthma encounters. Encounter volume (negative binomial rate ratios, RR) and the ED/inpatient encounter fraction (logistic odds ratios, OR) were modeled per 10,000 spores·m−3 using weekly means and 3- and 7-day moving averages, with age adjustment or stratification, period × age interaction tests, false discovery rate (FDR) control, and a time-stratified case-crossover analysis of ED/inpatient events. Age-adjusted annual estimates were close to the null (volume RR 0.990–1.011; fraction OR 0.975–0.999). Associations with the ED/inpatient fraction differed by age and period (interaction p < 0.001), whereas heterogeneity in encounter volume was weak (p = 0.05–0.28). Of 48 period × age estimates, eight were nominally significant, and one survived FDR control (2020, ages 75–84, fraction OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.12–1.47). The 2020 case-crossover estimate for 3-day average exposure was inverse (OR 0.946, 95% CI 0.910–0.984), the 7-day estimate was null, and directions varied across years. These small, heterogeneous associations describe population-level co-occurrence in this region, not individual-level risk.
Airborne fungi can threaten both cultural heritage materials and indoor air quality, even under temperature and relative humidity conditions not commonly associated with fungal proliferation. This study evaluated culturable airborne fungi in two museum rooms, a semi-confined Lodge, and the surrounding Garden at Castello D’Albertis Museum of World Cultures in Genoa, Italy, during one museum closing day and one high-attendance opening day. Air samples were collected by active impaction on Malt Extract Agar and Rose Bengal Agar. Fungal isolates were identified using morphological and molecular methods, and the Fungal Susceptibility Score was applied as a comparative/priorization tool to estimate potential risks to paper, wood, plaster, and people. Cladosporium was the dominant genus under both sampling conditions, detected in all eight sampling occasions (100%), and was also consistently recovered from visibly affected books. The indoor/outdoor fungal concentration ratio increased from approximately 0.41 during the closed day to 1.06 during the opening day. Isolates provisionally identified as C. pseudocladosporioides and Cladosporium sp. showed ligninolytic and cellulolytic activity, with C. pseudocladosporioides displaying a significantly higher gallic-acid halo-to-colony ratio (4.53 ± 0.30 vs. 1.76 ± 0.04, n = 9; p < 0.0001). Fungal Susceptibility Score values were generally higher for material substrates than for people, although patterns varied among sampling sites and opening conditions. These findings indicate that moderate indoor relative humidity does not exclude fungal biodeterioration risk and support integrating fungal concentration, taxonomic composition, and substrate specific indices in museum monitoring and conservation planning.
Plants are the dominant biological interface with the atmosphere, maintaining continuous physical and chemical interactions with the air. However, the botanical dimension of aerobiology, particularly the diversity of plant-derived aerosols and their structural origins, remains fragmented across the literature and insufficiently integrated. The aim of this review is to provide a plant-focused perspective and contextualization of aerobiology, focusing on sources of plant-derived and vegetation-mediated atmospheric contributions integrated into the major biological pathways. At the microscale, plant-derived atmospheric contributions can be traced to the structural botanical origins. This encompasses reproductive propagules such as pollen grains and structures from exposed surfaces such as non-glandular trichomes and other vegetation debris, representing the botanical domain of aerobiology. Gases and volatiles associated with plant physiology extend this perspective into the broader vegetation–atmosphere interface. These contributions arise through different biological pathways, including reproduction and dispersal, structural detachment, physiological exchange, and chemical signaling. At the macroscale, integration across major vegetation types highlights the role of vegetation context in the occurrence and interpretation of atmospheric signals and processes. Their broader implications extend to human health, ecological signaling and atmospheric processes. A more botanically integrated aerobiology can enable stronger connections between plant structures and functions, vegetation-scale patterns and atmospheric processes.
