Fungi Identify the Geographic Origin of Dust Samples

• Activity Number: 552
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Learning and Data Mining
• Author(s): Neal Grantham* and Brian J. Reich and Krishna Pacifici and Eric Laber and Holly L. Menninger and Jessica B. Henley and Albert Barberan and Jonathan W. Leff and Noah Fierer and Robert Dunn
• Companies: North Carolina State University and North Carolina State University and North Carolina State University and North Carolina State University and North Carolina State University and University of Colorado and University of Colorado and University of Colorado and University of Colorado and North Carolina State University

Abstract

There is a long history of archaeologists and forensic scientists using pollen found in dust samples to identify their geographic origin or history. Such palynological approaches have important limitations as they require time-consuming identification of pollen grains, a priori knowledge of plant species distributions, and a sufficient diversity of pollen types to permit spatial or temporal identification. We demonstrate an alternative approach based on DNA sequencing analyses of the fungal diversity found in dust samples. Using nearly 1,000 dust samples collected from across the continental U.S., our analyses identify up to 40,000 fungal taxa from these samples, many of which exhibit a high degree of geographic endemism. We utilize discriminant analysis to exploit this geographic endemicity in the fungal diversity and correctly identify samples to within a few hundred kilometers of their geographic origin with high probability. This work opens up a new approach to forensic biology that could be used by scientists to identify the origin of dust or soil samples found on objects, clothing, or archaeological artifacts.