Uncovering prokaryotic biodiversity within aerosols of the pristine Amazon forest

Biological aerosols (bioaerosol) are atmospheric particles that act as a dispersion unit of living organisms across the globe thereby affecting the biogeographic distribution of organisms. Despite their importance, there is virtually no knowledge about bioaerosols emitted by pristine forests. Here we provide the very first survey of the prokaryotic community of a bioaerosol collected inside pristine Amazon forest at 2 m above ground. Total atmospheric particles were collected at the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, subjected to metagenomic DNA extraction and the prokaryotic diversity was determined by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. A total of 271,577 reads of 250 bp of the 16S rRNA gene amplicon were obtained. Only 27% of the reads could be classified using the 16S SILVA database. Most belonged to Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes which is in good agreement with other bioaerosol studies. Further inspection of the reads using Blast searches and the 18S SILVA database revealed that most of the dataset was composed of Fungi sequences. The identified microbes suggest that the atmosphere may act as an important gateway to interchange bacteria between plants, soil and water ecosystems. [Display omitted] •An efficient method to collect the microbiome of aerosol within pristin amazon forest was developed.•This is the first study describing the prokaryotic community of bioaerosols in the Amazon.•Metagenomic DNA was extracted from air samples and the prokaryotic diversity determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.•The organisms identified in Amazon bioaerosols are a potential source for biotechnological applications.