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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1378180

Microbial diversity in earthen site of Exhibition Hall of Pit No. 1 at the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum and its correlation with environmental factors

Provisionally accepted
Cen Wang Cen Wang 1Lilong Hou Lilong Hou 2*Nan Jiang Nan Jiang 3Yu Wang Yu Wang 4Xiaofen Mao Xiaofen Mao 5*Ping Zhou Ping Zhou 5*Yin Xia Yin Xia 5*Yuanyuan Wang Yuanyuan Wang 4*Chuyue Chen Chuyue Chen 2*Xinyu Yang Xinyu Yang 2*Qiang Luo Qiang Luo 5*Jiao Pan Jiao Pan 4*
  • 1 Department of Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
  • 2 Nankai University, Tianjin, China
  • 3 Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
  • 4 University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 5 Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Earthen sites are essential cultural relic resources, and site museums are a fundamental component of China's cultural heritage protection. The mausoleum of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor is one of the largest, most peculiar, and richest imperial tombs in the world. The exhibition hall of the burial pit No. 1 of the Terra Cotta Warriors is the earliest exhibition hall built and opened to the public. However, after years of excavation and open exhibitions, the earthen site of the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum has deteriorated to varying degrees due to changes in the modern environment. There is an urgent need to control microbial diseases and protect the earthen site. We analyzed the physical and chemical properties and bioindicators of the collected soil samples.We also established a metagenomic library and conducted a correlation analysis between microbial community composition and environmental factors. Cultivable fungi obtained from air and soil samples were identified, and allicin volatile gas fungistasis test was conducted. Research has found that four different areas of the exhibition hall have different types of microbial diseases owing to their different environments. The main pathogenic fungi in earthen site may lead to potential microbial diseases that affect important cultural relics such as the Terra Cotta Warriors. Penicillium, Aspergillus and Talaromyces showed relatively specific growth in relation to environmental factors and showed a better raw growth advantage.Allicin gas had a inhibitory effect on 12 types of fungi, therefore allicin gas had a potent inhibitory effect on the growth of the most culturable fungal hyphae.

    Keywords: The Terracotta Warriors Museum, Microbial Diversity, Earthen site, Environmental factor, Function of microorganisms

    Received: 29 Jan 2024; Accepted: 29 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Hou, Jiang, Wang, Mao, Zhou, Xia, Wang, Chen, Yang, Luo and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lilong Hou, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China
    Xiaofen Mao, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, China
    Ping Zhou, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, China
    Yin Xia, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, China
    Yuanyuan Wang, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, Beijing Municipality, China
    Chuyue Chen, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China
    Xinyu Yang, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China
    Qiang Luo, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, China
    Jiao Pan, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, Beijing Municipality, China

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