Researchers use environmental DNA to detect grass pollen levels

Grass pollen is a major outdoor allergen, causing a wide range of respiratory diseases, including allergic asthma and rhinitis.

"These findings improve our understanding of the complex relationship between pollen and population health.

Wheeler and colleagues, including Francis Rowney of the University of Exeter, Georgina Brennan and Simon Creer of Bangor University, and Nicholas Osborne of the University of Queensland, Australia, noted that more than 400 million people worldwide suffer from allergic rhinitis, and 3 Hundreds of millions of people suffer from asthma.

"Previous investigations of grass pollen spread in the air were limited by traditional concentration monitoring methods: the use of optical microscopes to identify and count pollen particles collected by air samplers.

In the new study, the researchers took a different approach, using environmental DNA sampling and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to measure the relative abundance of common grass pollen in the air in the two seasons.

The data shows that the relative abundance of pollen from different grass species in the air varies greatly whether in the UK or throughout the grass pollen season.

"We have long known that grass pollen has an important impact on the health of the population.

Researchers hope to achieve wider spatial coverage and monitor more pollen seasons to obtain more information about the relative impact of individual grass species.

Related paper information: doi.