ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Ancient DNA and Forensic Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1611451
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobes and Cultural Heritage: From Biodiversity to ApplicationsView all 7 articles
Analysis and Prevention of Microbial Degradation of Shadow Puppetry Artifacts Preserved in the National Shadow Puppetry Museum in Chengdu
Provisionally accepted- 1University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
- 2Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 3Chengdu Museum, Chengdu, China
- 4Nankai University, Tianjin, China
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Shadow puppetry, an integral and crucial component of China's intangible cultural heritage, currently faces the significant threat of microbial degradation. This is primarily due to the organic materials used in its artifacts. This study centers on the shadow puppets housed in the National Shadow Puppetry Museum in Chengdu. By employing Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and high-throughput sequencing techniques, it has revealed a diverse array of co-existing microorganisms on the surfaces of these puppets. These include species from genera such as Aspergillus, Streptomyces, Nocardiopsis, Pseudomonas, and Saccharopolyspora, among others.Eleven microbial species were successfully isolated, wherein four were identified as predominant: Pseudomonas sp. WH. S-B1, Streptomyces sp. WH. S-B2, Nocardiopsis sp. WH. S-B6, and Aspergillus fumigatus WH. S-F2. Notably, these four strains demonstrated the ability to degrade collagen. The antimicrobial experiment results indicated that 0.3% isothiazolinone-based antimicrobial agents BC01 and 50 mg/mL carvacrol exhibited a certain degree of antimicrobial activity against these predominant strains. Overall, this research provides a robust foundation for the conservation of shadow puppet artifacts. It does so by thoroughly analyzing the mechanisms of microbial degradation and screening effective antimicrobial agents.
Keywords: Shadow Puppetry Artifacts, microbial degradation, microbial community, Antimicrobial agents, Cultural relics preservation
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wang, Guan, Wang, Duan, Min, Zhong, Hou 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: Jiao Pan, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
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