atmosphere Article Potential Human and Plant Pathogenic Species in Airborne PM10 Samples and Relationships with Chemical Components and Meteorological Parameters Salvatore Romano 1,* , Mattia Fragola 1 , Pietro Alifano 2, Maria Rita Perrone 1 and Adelfia Talà 2 1 Department of Mathematics and Physics “E. De Giorgi”, University of Salento and I.N.F.N. (Unit of Lecce), 73100 Lecce, Italy;
[email protected] (M.F.);
[email protected] (M.R.P.) 2 Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Technologies (DISTEBA), University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy;
[email protected] (P.A.); adelfi
[email protected] (A.T.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0832-297-553 Abstract: A preliminary local database of potential (opportunistic) airborne human and plant pathogenic and non-pathogenic species detected in PM10 samples collected in winter and spring is provided, in addition to their seasonal dependence and relationships with meteorological parameters and PM10 chemical species. The PM10 samples, collected at a Central Mediterranean coastal site, were analyzed by the 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding approach, and Spearman correlation coefficients and redundancy discriminant analysis tri-plots were used to investigate the main relationships. The screening of 1187 detected species allowed for the detection of 76 and 27 potential (opportunistic) human and plant pathogens, respectively. The bacterial structure of both pathogenic and non- Citation: Romano, S.; Fragola, M.; pathogenic species varied from winter to spring and, consequently, the inter-species relationships Alifano, P.; Perrone, M.R.; Talà, A. among potential human pathogens, plant pathogens, and non-pathogenic species varied from winter Potential Human and Plant to spring.