Large skeleton specimens are often featured as iconic open displays in Natural History Museums, for example, the blue whale 'Hope' at the Natural History Museum, London. A study on Hope's bone surface was performed to assess the biodeterioration potential of fungi. Fungi were isolated, and a fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) clone library survey was performed on dust and bone material. Mineral particles derived from bone and dust were analysed using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, variable pressure scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high vacuum SEM. Results showed that bone material, although mainly mineral in nature, and therefore less susceptible than organic materials to biodeterioration phenomena in the indoor environments, offers niches for specialized fungi and is affected by unusual and yet not so well-documented mechanisms of alteration. Areas of bone surface were covered with a dense biofilm mostly composed of fungal hyphae, which produced tunnelling and extensive deposition of calcium and iron-containing secondary minerals. Airborne halophilic and xerophilic fungi including taxa grouping into Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, capable of displacing salts and overcome little water availability, were found to dominate the microbiome of the bone surface.

中文翻译：

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博物馆室内环境中的骨骼骨骼为真菌提供了生态位，并且受到风化和次生矿物质沉积的影响。

在自然历史博物馆中，大型骨架标本经常被用作标志性的开放展示，例如，伦敦自然历史博物馆中的蓝鲸“希望”。对Hope的骨表面进行了一项研究，以评估真菌的生物降解潜力。分离真菌，并对灰尘和骨骼材料进行真菌内部转录间隔子（ITS）克隆文库调查。使用能量色散X射线光谱仪，可变压力扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和高真空SEM对源自骨头和灰尘的矿物颗粒进行了分析。结果表明，骨骼材料虽然本质上主要是矿物，但在室内环境中比有机材料更不易受到生物降解现象的影响，为特殊真菌提供了生态位，并且受到异常但尚未充分记录的变化机制的影响。骨骼表面区域覆盖着一层主要由真菌菌丝组成的致密生物膜，该生物膜形成隧道并大量沉积钙和含铁的次生矿物质。人们发现，包括类群在内的空气传播的嗜盐和异种真菌能够替代盐分并克服了很少的水分供应，这些菌群主要分布在骨表面的微生物组中，这些菌群包括子囊菌（Ascomycota）和担子菌（Basidiomycota）。