Survey of viable airborne fungi in wine cellars of Tokaj, Hungary

The composition of fungal biota and air quality of five traditional subterranean wine cellars and one store building of a modern wine production facility were examined in the Tokaj wine region (northeastern Hungary). Air samples were collected with SAS IAQ sampler onto PDA, MEA and RBA. Strains representing morphotypes were isolated from colonies formed on agar plates from either air or surface samples. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene cluster was amplified with primers ITS1 and ITS4. Altogether 90 morphotypes were isolated, 48 and 12 strains (43 species) from the air and surfaces, respectively. The number of spore-forming species generated high diversity of indoor fungi and differences between the cellars’ fungal compositions; however, their dominant species were proved to be the same. Among the isolated strains Penicillium spp. were the most frequent. The walls of cellars were covered by colonies of Zasmidium ( Cladosporium ) cellare often referred to as a noble mold. Even so, this mold has been found only at a small concentration in the air samples (10–30 CFU/m 3 ). The walls of the modern store were free of molds. Diversity of fungi of the examined wine cellars was influenced by environmental conditions to a certain degree, such as elevation (height above sea level), age, reconstruction time of cellars, indoor ethanol concentration and the number of chimneys. The location of cellars poorly influenced the concentration of fungi of the air inside cellars, contrary to outdoors where the air of the municipal area contained more CFUs than that of rural spaces.