Indoor microbiome, environmental characteristics and asthma among junior high school students in Johor Bahru, Malaysia Xi Fu1, Dan Norbäck2, Qianqian Yuan3,4, Yanling Li3,4, Xunhua Zhu3,4,Yiqun Deng3,4, Jamal Hisham Hashim5,6, Zailina Hashim7, Yi-Wu Zheng8, Xu-Xin Lai8, Michael Dho Spangfort8, Yu Sun3,4 * 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China. 2Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dept. of Medical Science, University Hospital, Uppsala University, 75237 Uppsala, Sweden. 3Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Protein Function and Regulation in Agricultural Organisms, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510642, PR China. 4Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510642, PR China. 5United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 6Department of Community Health, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 7Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 8Asia Pacific Research, ALK-Abello A/S, Guanzhou, China *To whom corresponds should be addressed: Yu Sun
[email protected], Key words: bacteria, fungi, microbial community, absolute quantity, wheezing, breathlessness, adolescence, dampness/visible mold Abstract Indoor microbial diversity and composition are suggested to affect the prevalence and severity of asthma, but no microbial association study has been conducted in tropical countries. In this study, we collected floor dust and environmental characteristics from 21 classrooms, and health data related to asthma symptoms from 309 students, in junior high schools in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.