STUDIES on INDOOR FUNGI by James Alexander
STUDIES ON INDOOR FUNGI by James Alexander Scott A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mycology, Graduate Department of Botany in the University of Toronto Copyright by James Alexander Scott, 2001 When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass”, 1855 STUDIES ON INDOOR FUNGI James Alexander Scott Department of Botany, University of Toronto 2001 ABSTRACT Fungi are among the most common microbiota in the interiors of buildings, including homes. Indoor fungal contaminants, such as dry-rot, have been known since antiquity and are important agents of structural decay, particularly in Europe. The principal agents of indoor fungal contamination in North America today, however, are anamorphic (asexual) fungi mostly belonging to the phyla Ascomycota and Zygomycota, commonly known as “moulds”. Broadloom dust taken from 369 houses in Wallaceburg, Ontario during winter, 1994, was serial dilution plated, yielding approximately 250 fungal taxa, over 90% of which were moulds. The ten most common taxa were: Alternaria alternata, Aureobasidium pullulans, Eurotium herbariorum, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium chrysogenum, Cladosporium cladosporioides, P. spinulosum, Cl.
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